FIVE WAYS TO GET RID OF PESTS WITHOUT USING CHEMICALS

By Abel Abel Inis
Africa Correspondent, SAM Daily Times

Pests can be, well, a pest. They infest crops and reduce yields, reducing agricultural production and food security. To deal with pests, such as Mealybugs or Spider mites, most farmers use chemical pesticides which can impact health, pollute water supplies through run off, and, if perticides are misused or overused, can actually kill plants. Finding new methods to get rid of pests without requiring chemical inputs has increasingly become a priority for many farmers. Nourishing the Planet introduces five crop management methods that control pests without using chemical pesticides.

1. Crop rotation: It involves alternating the species of crop that a farmer grows on his or her land each year. This helps to prevent pests from getting used to the type of plant that is being cultivated.

2. Intercropping: This is the simultaneous cultivation of two or more crops on the same field. It works by attracting pests away from their host plant. Planting a variety of plant species on a field increases the distance between plants of the same species, making it harder for pests to target their main crop.

3. Crop diversity: In order to protect crops from pests, increasing the types of vegetables, plants, and fruits that are grown, make each crop less susceptible to pests. ''Pests and diseases thrive in monocultures because there's an abundance of few or no natural enemies to check their growth''.
4. Using pests to fight pests: Integrating predatory insects into a farm, such as ladybugs or predatory mite, can help kill off pests. It was found that farms using this method have averaged a 79% increase in yield over previous agricultural systems. 

5. Organic pesticides: Organic pesticides are not only healthier for people and the environment but they allow farmers and most producers to make the most out of their resources by turning agricultural outputs into natural pesticides. All these methods have recorded huge successes in their application in different parts of the world.