Importance of crop protection:
Agriculture is the backbone of India. The percentage of the rural population In India is almost 65% as of 2021. Agriculture is also the main occupation in India with India being one of the major contributors to the agriculture sector worldwide. 58% of the Indian population depends upon agriculture for their livelihood. The arable land area ie., land that can be used for cultivating crops in India is 159.7 million hectares which amount to 394.6 million acres according to Wikipedia. This is second only to the US. The amount of crop lost to pests is 15- 20%. Some even say that Pests destroy 30-35% of crops every year.
What are the major reasons for crop loss in India ?
Every year India loses its bounty of crops to one of the following factors:
- Pests and Insects
- Drought
- Heavy rainfall
- Diseases
When drought and heavy rainfall are environmental factors that are difficult to control we can control pests, insects and diseases with proper crop protection technique
What is crop protection?
Crop protection is the technique or method used by farmers to protect their crops from major loss. The crop protection can be:
- chemical
- biological
- some agricultural techniques like crop rotation, strip cropping, deep ploughing etc.
When proper crop protection methods are implemented by farmers it is assured that they will be able to reduce their crop loss and in turn increase their profit and food production at large.
Chemical crop protection:
Chemical crop protection mainly uses various legally allowed agrochemicals designed for different crops and different pests. Judicial use of such chemical crop protection methods will increase the yield of the farmers. These agrochemicals used for crop protection can be classified as herbicides, weedicides, insecticides/pecticides and fungicides. Each one of them targets different enemy of the crop and care should be taken to use them according to the target problem and crop on which this has to be used.
The hard work and hours of toil on the fields by farmers results in bountiful crop harvest. These hours of labour and love should not be lost to pests and diseases. This shatters the morale of the farmers and force them to sell their fertile land and migrate to cities in pursuit of better earning and rewards for hardwork. Farmers need to be educated on safe and judicious crop protection methods which will help them in the long run.
Explore our range of agrochemicals which will help in total crop protection