Question

What are the various ways from which we protect crops from weeds and pests

Answer 1

Dear Student

1. Crop rotation - As we know, weeds compete with the crops to obtain nutrients and show similar growth patterns. In crop rotation, farmer grows different crops one after the other in the same fields. Every crop has different nutrients requirements from the other crops. Due to alteration in nutrients, the lifecycle of weeds get altered which ultimately results in their elimination.

Similarly, there are different pests for different crops, so when the crops are rotated from time to time, the chances of pest attack are minimised.
2. Using pesticides and weedicides can protect plants from pests and weeds respectively.

3. Manually plucking the weeds by hands or removing weeds by trowel and harrow. Ploughing the field to remove the weeds even before sowing the seeds.

We can protect crops from pests and diseases by the use of the following substances:

• Fungicide is a chemical substance that destroys or inhibits the growth of fungi to prevent infection of plant by fungi.
• Pesticides are substances or mixture of substances intended for preventing, destroying, repelling or mitigating any pest.It may be a chemical , biological agent, antimicrobial, disinfectant or device used against any pest including insects , plant pathogens , weeds, molluscs, microbes, etc.
• Insecticide is a pesticide used against insects. They include ovicides and larvicides used against the eggs and larvae of insects respectively. It used in agriculture, household, etc.

Regards