A platform for research: civil engineering, architecture and urbanism
A platform for research: civil engineering, architecture and urbanism
Ecological illiteracy can deepen farmers’ pesticide dependency
Nearly 2.5 billion smallholders cultivate the world’s arable land, strategically positioned to tackle multiple Anthropocene challenges. When consciously adopting ecologically-based pest management practices, they can improve resource use efficiency, slow biodiversity loss, curtail environmental pollution and safeguard human health. Yet, the effective implementation of knowledge-intensive management practices requires underlying ecological concepts to be well-understood. Here, drawing upon published social science research spanning 1910–2016, we illuminate deficiencies in the world’s farmers’ ecological literacy and in their valuation of insect-mediated ecosystem services. Though tribal people and indigenous folk possess sophisticated knowledge of insects that occur within farm settings, contemporary farmers on average know a mere 1.9–2.3 pestiferous herbivores and 0.5–0.9 pest-killing organisms (out of a respective 8 and 3 taxa) in a particular crop or cropping system. Ecosystem services such as biological pest control are annually worth hundreds of dollars ha ^−1 but remain unknown to nearly 70% of farmers globally. Also, agricultural systems with deficient ecological literacy tend to foster a greater dependency upon chemically-synthesized pesticides. If this ‘cognitive handicap’ can be remediated, farmers could become agro-biodiversity stewards and champions in redressing multiple aspects of global environmental change.
Ecological illiteracy can deepen farmers’ pesticide dependency
Nearly 2.5 billion smallholders cultivate the world’s arable land, strategically positioned to tackle multiple Anthropocene challenges. When consciously adopting ecologically-based pest management practices, they can improve resource use efficiency, slow biodiversity loss, curtail environmental pollution and safeguard human health. Yet, the effective implementation of knowledge-intensive management practices requires underlying ecological concepts to be well-understood. Here, drawing upon published social science research spanning 1910–2016, we illuminate deficiencies in the world’s farmers’ ecological literacy and in their valuation of insect-mediated ecosystem services. Though tribal people and indigenous folk possess sophisticated knowledge of insects that occur within farm settings, contemporary farmers on average know a mere 1.9–2.3 pestiferous herbivores and 0.5–0.9 pest-killing organisms (out of a respective 8 and 3 taxa) in a particular crop or cropping system. Ecosystem services such as biological pest control are annually worth hundreds of dollars ha ^−1 but remain unknown to nearly 70% of farmers globally. Also, agricultural systems with deficient ecological literacy tend to foster a greater dependency upon chemically-synthesized pesticides. If this ‘cognitive handicap’ can be remediated, farmers could become agro-biodiversity stewards and champions in redressing multiple aspects of global environmental change.
Ecological illiteracy can deepen farmers’ pesticide dependency
K A G Wyckhuys (author) / K L Heong (author) / F Sanchez-Bayo (author) / F J J A Bianchi (author) / J G Lundgren (author) / J W Bentley (author)
2019
Article (Journal)
Electronic Resource
Unknown
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