No More Mr. Rice-Guy: Handling Pests and Selling Rice
In a dream world maybe everyone lives in a castle or people can fly, dragons exist or wizards are real, or maybe rice crops would never be devoured by pests or attacked by disease. This miracle dream world may vary by age, whether you are a 2nd grader hopped up on sugar or a farmer with a good imagination and high hopes. However, for the farmer the only part of their dream that is so far fetched is ‘never’ because there are ways to handle pests on crops. For rice crops, insects and diseases as well as their control methods are extremely important for healthy plants, a good yield, as well the farmers ability to sell the product.
Sadly we do not live in one of these mystical dream worlds …show more content…
Integrated Pest Management (IPM) is this method, the fields are monitored and information collected, and based on that data the best method for control is chosen. The options for controls are biological, cultural, mechanical and as a last resort, chemical (Introduction to Integrated Pest Management). An example of cultural controls would be like planting resistant varieties of the rice crop, this helps to prevent leaffolders and stem borers from damaging the plant as well as bacterial blight and rice grassy stunt. Another form of cultural control would be raising water levels in the rice fields, this helps to kill insect eggs helping to control stem borers and armyworms. The use of fertilizer can also have a huge effect on pests, a lot of fertilizer applied means a large population of leaffolders and a balanced amount of fertilizer can help prevent bacterial blight. A biological control is an action like promoting spider, wasp, and certain fly populations to help cut down on the number of armyworms and whorl maggots, or the pesky brown plant hoppers who spread rice grassy stunt. IPM also uses mechanical/physical methods of control, which would be like pulling weeds, trimming diseased limbs, or picking insects and eggs directly off crops (Diseases; Insects). The final and last type of management is chemical, applying herbicides, pesticides etc. to the field, and is seen as a final option when nothing else has worked and the crop is in desperate need of help. Often the plants are strong enough, that with the use of the three other methods chemical controls are not needed, and the plant will repair itself or replaced damaged parts on its own, though the yield may still be
In a dream world maybe everyone lives in a castle or people can fly, dragons exist or wizards are real, or maybe rice crops would never be devoured by pests or attacked by disease. This miracle dream world may vary by age, whether you are a 2nd grader hopped up on sugar or a farmer with a good imagination and high hopes. However, for the farmer the only part of their dream that is so far fetched is ‘never’ because there are ways to handle pests on crops. For rice crops, insects and diseases as well as their control methods are extremely important for healthy plants, a good yield, as well the farmers ability to sell the product.
Sadly we do not live in one of these mystical dream worlds …show more content…
Integrated Pest Management (IPM) is this method, the fields are monitored and information collected, and based on that data the best method for control is chosen. The options for controls are biological, cultural, mechanical and as a last resort, chemical (Introduction to Integrated Pest Management). An example of cultural controls would be like planting resistant varieties of the rice crop, this helps to prevent leaffolders and stem borers from damaging the plant as well as bacterial blight and rice grassy stunt. Another form of cultural control would be raising water levels in the rice fields, this helps to kill insect eggs helping to control stem borers and armyworms. The use of fertilizer can also have a huge effect on pests, a lot of fertilizer applied means a large population of leaffolders and a balanced amount of fertilizer can help prevent bacterial blight. A biological control is an action like promoting spider, wasp, and certain fly populations to help cut down on the number of armyworms and whorl maggots, or the pesky brown plant hoppers who spread rice grassy stunt. IPM also uses mechanical/physical methods of control, which would be like pulling weeds, trimming diseased limbs, or picking insects and eggs directly off crops (Diseases; Insects). The final and last type of management is chemical, applying herbicides, pesticides etc. to the field, and is seen as a final option when nothing else has worked and the crop is in desperate need of help. Often the plants are strong enough, that with the use of the three other methods chemical controls are not needed, and the plant will repair itself or replaced damaged parts on its own, though the yield may still be