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Plant-Insect Ecosystems

Student Competition 10-Minute Paper

Grad P-IE: Biocontrol 2 On-Demand Presentations

Ecological Intensification over time: Pest suppression and yield Benefits in the push-pull system

On-Demand
Student Competition On-Demand
Ecological intensification in agriculture aims to maintain or improve agricultural yields and reduce negative environmental impacts through careful management of biodiversity. Although biological control is a common goal in ecologically intensified systems, studies examining how the benefits of biological control change with time since establishment are rare. Much like insecticides, there are concerns of pests developing resistance to biological control, but there are also reasons to believe that ecologically intensified systems will remain stable or even become more effective with time since establishment. Using the push-pull cropping system in Western Kenya, we examined how effects on stemboring moths - using plant damage as a proxy, the parasitic striga weed, and maize yield were affected by the age of a push-pull field. With 1931 data points from 483 unique farmers over 24 cropping seasons, we found that the push-pull system had stronger pest suppression effect for both stemborers and striga in older fields. We also found that the system’s significant improvements in crop yields relative to the control plots remained steady (suggesting stability) regardless of age. Although this study did not directly address mechanisms, it appears that the push-pull system is robust against concerns of pest resistance. This further suggests that ecologically intensified systems generally may be resilient against pest adaptation over time, and may be able to maintain consistently high yields.