Pest and Disease Management for Organic Farmers, Growers and Smallholders

Book excerpt: A comprehensive book covering all aspects of the subject in temperate areas, and advocating a whole-farm approach to management Incorporating the most up-do-date thinking on organic pest and disease management, this is an essential reference work for all those wishing to develop a good understanding of the subject. The authors provide a practical guide to organic pest and disease management practices. They advocate a whole-farm approach to pest and disease management, which uses rotations and the full farm landscape to manage pest and disease outbreaks. The book covers the scientific principles underlying pest and disease management in organic systems; long-term preventative methods, based on sensitive landscape management, and shorter-term reactive measures; the cost implications of different approaches; the monitoring and decisionmaking processes that farmers and growers should use; and the key pests and diseases of field vegetables, cereals, and green manures, and their management in organic systems.