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Crop Protection

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Overview

Crops are at risk of being damaged by pests. Pests can be insects, diseases, weeds, or rodents. Farmers use different crop practices, technology, and products to help them manage crop pests.

Farmers sometimes use crop protection products called pesticides to get rid of pests and to help keep the crop strong and healthy. Pesticides can be either synthetic (made in a laboratory) or organic (directly from ground, plants, or animals).

A farmer is bent down in field looking closely at a green crop.

This farmer is checking this crop for any sign of weeds, diseases, insects, and pests.

Types of Pesticides

There are four main types of pesticides:

  • Herbicides – kills weeds
  • Insecticides – kills insects
  • Fungicides – prevents disease
  • Rodenticides – kills or prevents rodents (like mice)

Herbicides

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A male red and white newborn calf stands in a pen.

Herbicides

Herbicides are used to protect the crop from weeds that compete with the crop for sun, water, and nutrients in the field.

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Insecticides

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A male red and white newborn calf stands in a pen.

Insecticides

Insecticides are used to protect the crop from any insects that are harmful to the crop. Grasshoppers have eaten this leaf.

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Fungicides

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A close-up of crop disease is shown where there are many brown spots on the stems.

Fungicides

Fungicides are used to protect the crop from diseases that can harm the crop.

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Rodenticides

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A brown mouse is sitting on a pile of grain and eating it.

Rodenticides

Rodenticides are used to protect grain from rodents. Rodents like mice can eat the grain and also poop in it!

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Applying Pesticides

All pesticides have instructions for farmers to follow that tell them how much pesticide should be used. These amounts are called ‘recommended rates.’

Some seeds are treated with a pesticide to prevent disease or insects from affecting the plant’s growth.

The left side has germinated wheat seeds that are white and healthy and the right side shows germinated wheat seeds that have a fungus growing on them.

The right side shows wheat seed infected with a fungus called ‘fusarium’ and the left side shows the wheat seed that has been treated to prevent the ergot from growing.

Many pesticides are applied once the crop or weeds start growing. Farmers mix the pesticide with water and apply it with a crop sprayer. Only a small amount of pesticide is mixed with water to dilute it and then the mixture is spread evenly over the field.

On a field the size of a football field, about 22 to 44 litres of water is sprayed and the amount of pesticide used is around 500 millilitres. So, most of the spray that comes out of the sprayer is water!

The amount of grain a crop produces (or yields) will drop if a farmer doesn’t use pesticides when the crop requires them.

The amount of grain a crop produces (or yields) will drop if a farmer doesn’t use pesticides when the crop requires them.

An illustrated farm sprayer has its booms out and is spraying a green crop.

This crop sprayer is being used to spray this crop with pesticide.

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An illustrated farm sprayer has its booms out and is spraying a green crop.

Pesticides can also be applied using planes called crop dusters.

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An illustrated group of grasshoppers are eating a corn plant and leaving many holes in the leaves. There is a corn crop in the background.

Grasshoppers have been eating this corn plant and damaging the leaves.

Quiz

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