Assessment of Biological Control Agents against Major Crop Pests

Abstract

Biological control agents have become a key element in the sustainable control of pests because of the growing concern over the environmental and health effects of synthetic pesticides. The growing world problem of food needs and pressure to reduce damage to the environment has led to such studies to harness the power of natural enemies and microbial agents in the suppression of major crop pests. Biological control includes a wide variety of biological organisms such as predators, parasitoids, pathogenic microbes, and entomopathogenic nematodes, which work by predation, parasitism, infection and competition to decrease the pest population. Despite the successes in particular cropping systems, a lack of widespread adoption because of such challenges as environmental dependency, limitations in mass rearing and inconsistencies in field efficacy. This paper evaluates existing biological control methods against key pests of crops, their effectiveness and the opportunities and the constraints that are involved in integrating them into modern agriculture. Overall, biological control comes as a promising route that will help bring the world towards becoming less dependent on chemical pesticides while still securing agricultural productivity.