What role do pesticides have in agriculture?

Question

i need a website if possible..im writing a 5-8 page paper on this..

Answer 1

kills insects thus letting the plants live without destruction

Answer 2

When you do your research, try to keep an open mind concerning pesticides.  Pesticide use isn't exclusive to farmers and there's hardly a person in this country that doesn't or hasn't used pesticides.  

Using flea and tick powder one's pets is using a pesticide as is setting out mouse poison.  If your kid gets head lice at school, the shampoo used for control is a pesticide.  Weed and feed or Roundup used around the garden are pesticides.  Wasp and hornet spray is a pesticide are the little ant killer traps you set out.  Athlete's foot powder or spray and even mouthwash....it kills those pesky bacteria in your mouth or the fungus between your toes and since you're killing living organisms, it's a pesticide.

Answer 3

Pesticides are used to kill organisms that attack crops. Pesticides come in different guises and are either organic Eco friendly or chemicals.

Ladybirds for example can be released to selectively kill Aphid infestations and is an example of an Eco-friendly Insecticide.

Pesticides are usually broken down into:-

Herbicides - Control Weeds

A herbicide may act on impact, or systemic in action. Roundup acts systemically and is a widely used Herbicide.

Insecticides: - Kills Insects

Control of insects by these products, is controversial as the chemicals are notoriously more toxic. If the crop requires insect pollination for example oil seed rape then use of a general insecticide may not be advisable.

Fungicide - Mildew, and other fungal infections

Fungal infections reduce the photosynthetic area of crops and may be applied.

Pesticides - Other

Slug Pellets and other poisons including fumigation may be used against larger pests. Fumicides may be used in storage facilities.

The issues of ecology, GM and organic farming considerations are important when discussing Pesticides. In the UK fields are smaller and cropping more diverse, that leads to more sensitive and diverse ecological impact of such things as GM cropping. Neighbors  may be Organic and using pesticides could cause unexpected neighbor problems. Issues of Health and safety vital to appreciate in storing and using chemicals.

Answer 4

There is an almost unlimited supply of information out there on the use of pesticides in agriculture. So I'm going to try to narrow it down a little rather than swamp you with information. This first reference is good and states the use of pesticides in agriculture in a straight forward way.

http://www.regional.org.au/au/roc/1992/r...

You need to take a look at the other side of the question as well. To be fair, I'll try to give you a look at this side as well.

http://www.pesticidewatch.org/Html/Agric...

To be honest both sides have some merits, but I believe that agriculture needs pesticides to keep up their production. They need to be used responsibly and not used excessively. I think that if you look at both sides of the pesticide question closely, you will see that one side is based on research and trials, while the other side is based on accusations with little data to back up their opinions.

Answer 5

Increase crop yields by reducing insect damage and destruction of crops.

Eliminate the insect (like boll weevil) and you get more cotton at harvest and a bigger profit.

Answer 6

Agriculture is all about selecting which organisms will be permitted to live on the land.

So we use tillage or herbicides, or in my case we plant black wallnut trees that do their own herbicide job. When we use herbicides, it is mostly to allow us to avoid tillage that promotes erosion, and uses scads of fuel, compacts the soil. But often we have to use tillage to deal with a growing problem with herbicide resistant weeds.

We use  other insects or insectivores or we use insecticides to limit the growth of insects. (My  farm uses a lot of spiders and wasps because people who eat walnuts often object to insecticides.) Because insects are closer to us in physiology we face greater risk in using many insecticides.. even organic dusts. So we switch to soaps or low toxicity dusts that are just a bit less effective but safer.

We use fungicides, or we ensure that there is adequate sulphate and copper in the soil, and avoid tilling the soil while the leaves are damp.

In the dairy barn, we may use cultural practices to avoid developing mastitis, or  an antibiotic that just must not stay in the milk supply.

Most farmers who do not have organic certification will have stores of food to be protected from mice, and will use rodenticide

Making sure it does not migrate with rodents into the food being protected is a major concern.

We have some genetic modifications to crops that act as an insecticide. Last year China lost a very large part of its cotton crop when a new variant of its cotton fly, resistant to the  GM insecticide made its first noticed appearance. It had probably been developing unnoticed for a few years.

The decision to use a GM protection instead of a chemical insecticide at first looks to be to use less chemical insecticide. but the GM insecticide is actually several times more prevalent in the field than an applied chemical would be. But for cotton, what does that matter? We don't eat it.

Applied insecticides on squash often fail because the application is not done widely enough. But it is  lower product concentration than the GM insecticide.

Applied insecticides can be removed from the field (not used) for a prescribed period before harvesting, giving insects a final chance to invade, while a GM insecticide stays in the skin right to harvest.

We have a lot of different pest killing strategies, and failure to kill other organisms that would lay claim to our food or the land on which our food grows is not entirely an option. It does take a lot of wisdom in choosing the best solution.