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Ecologically based pest management: a key pathway to achieving agroecosystem health (4373 words) |
 | Biotic constraints stressing agroecosystems are understood as imbalances; therefore the goal of the agroecological treatments is to recover balance and enhance the "immunity"of the agricultural system. |
| Instead on focusing on one particular component of agroecosystem, agroecology emphasizes the interrelatedness of all agroecosystem components and the complex dynamics of ecological processes such as nutrient cycling and pest regulation (Gliessman, 1998). |
| The instability of agroecosystems, which is manifested as the worsening of most insect pest problems, is increasingly linked to the expansion of crop monocultures at the expense of the natural vegetation, thereby decreasing local habitat diversity (Altieri and Letourneau, 1982). |
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Agroecology: principles and strategies for designing sustainable farming systems. (2346 words) |
| Agroecosystems are communities of plants and animals interacting with their physical and chemical environments that have been modified by people to produce food, fibre, fuel and other products for human consumption and processing. |
| By assembling a functional biodiversity it is possible to initiate synergisms which subsidize agroecosystem processes by providing ecological services such as the activation of soil biology, the recycling of nutrients, the enhancement of beneficial arthropods and antagonists, and so on (Altieri and Nicholls 1999). |
| The goal is to design an agroecosystem that mimics the structure and function of local natural ecosystems; that is, a system with high species diversity and a biologically active soil, one that promotes natural pest control, nutrient recycling and high soil cover to prevent resource losses. |
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