Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
crop, in terms of percentage crop loss, is the level at which
the value of the lost crop portion exceeds the cost of active
control measures.
Potato beetles are a common garden pest.
Passive Prevention
Passive prevention gives the biggest bang for both your time
and money because the focus lies mainly in performing
ordinary farming chores. Soil, water, sunshine, and crop
rotations are the foundation of pest and disease control; all of
these create an environment inhospitable to the persistence of
pests and disease.
A healthy, living soil with plenty of nutrients allows for
vigorous growth so that crops can outgrow problems. In
addition, healthier plants are less attractive to pests and less
susceptible to disease in most cases. Healthy soil plays host to
various portions of the life cycles of many beneficial insect
populations, along with beneficial microbes that compete with
nasty pathogens for nutrients and generate antibiotics to
eliminate them. It is no mistake that forests thrive
independent of human intervention, and the more closely a
farmer's garden approximates naturally optimal conditions for
