Increasing plant diversity with border crops reduces insecticide use and increases crop yield in urban agriculture

Wan, Nian‐Feng; Cai, Youming; Shen, Yanjun; Ji, Xiang‐Yun; Wu, Xiaoyi; Zheng, Xiang-Rong; Cheng, Wei; Li, Jun; Jiang, Yao-Pei; Chen, Xin; Weiner, Jacob; Jiang, Jie‐Xian; Nie, Ming; Ju, Rui‐Ting; Yuan, Tao; Tang, Jianjun; Tian, Weidong; Zhang, Hao; Li, Bo

doi:10.7554/elife.35103

Cited by 42 publications

(38 citation statements)

References 52 publications

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“…Most empirical work has concentrated on the local scale of the rice field including the vegetation immediately surrounding it. Recently, for example, it was demonstrated that planting nectar‐producing plants around rice fields in Thailand, Vietnam and China resulted in improved pest control, also in economic terms (Gurr et al, ), and similar results were reported for planting border crops in peri‐urban rice systems in Shanghai, China (Wan et al, ). Only a handful of studies have addressed the effects of the wider landscape setting on pests and natural enemies in rice, and all were conducted in tropical Southeast Asia (Dominik et al, ; Dominik, Seppelt, Horgan, Settele, & Václavík, ; Heong, Hijmans, Villareal, & Catintig, ; Settle et al, ; Wilby et al, ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 65%

Do diverse landscapes provide for effective natural pest control in subtropical rice?

Zou

Kraker

Bianchi

et al. 2019

Journal of Applied Ecology

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1. While the biocontrol potential of natural enemies is well established, it is largely unknown how landscape-mediated effects on pest and natural enemy communities impact the cascade of biocontrol potential, crop injury, yield and profit, taking into account crop management and surrounding landscape composition.2. We compared natural biocontrol with chemical control according to local farmers' practice, across the 'full cascade' from natural enemy and pest abundance to crop injury, yield loss, yield and economic performance. This 2-year study was conducted in 20 rice fields embedded in a gradient of landscapes from crop-dominated to semi-natural habitat-dominated, in subtropical China, the world's largest rice-producing region.3. Natural enemies suppressed brown planthopper population growth in unsprayed plots, irrespective of landscape composition. However, crop injury was lower in pesticide treated plots than in unsprayed plots, and yields in sprayed plots were 20% higher than in unsprayed plots. Nevertheless, pesticide applications were only profitable in less than half of the cases when only costs for pesticides were considered, and in less than one third of the cases when costs for pesticides and labour were considered. Synthesis and applications.Our findings question the cost-effectiveness of current chemical-based pest management in farming, and highlight opportunities for more ecologically based pest management strategies based on the widespread activity of natural enemies. Pest damage and biocontrol, however, are largely independent from the landscape context, which might be due to the small-scale character of Chinese rice landscapes. To maintain high levels of biocontrol, conserving this small-scale character appears more important than increasing the proportion of semi-natural habitat.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 65%

Do diverse landscapes provide for effective natural pest control in subtropical rice?

Zou

Kraker

Bianchi

et al. 2019

Journal of Applied Ecology

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“…Laurance, 2007; López-Barrera et al, 2007; Wan et al, 2018). Indeed, the composition and dominance of plant species are key factors in natural habitats that drive the richness and abundance of insects, i.e., the higher the plant species richness in a habitat, the higher the richness and abundance of a given insect community.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Habitat complexity in organic olive orchards modulates the abundance of natural enemies but not the attraction to plant species

Álvarez¹,

Morente²,

Ruano³

2021

Preprint

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Semi-natural habitat complexity and organic management could affect the abundance and diversity of natural enemies and pollinators in olive orchards. Nonetheless, in such agroecosystems the effect of plant structure, plant richness, and plant attraction on the arthropod fauna has been poorly documented. Here we evaluate the influence of those effects jointly as an expression of arthropod abundance and richness in olive trees, ground cover, and adjacent vegetation within organic olive orchards. For this, we used generalized linear models and non-metric multidimensional scaling (NMDS) integrating generalized additive models. Our results suggest that natural enemies and pollinators are mainly attracted to A. radiatus, D. catholica, and L. longirrostris within ground cover and G. cinerea speciosa, Q. rotundifolia, R. officinalis, T. zygis gracilis, and U. parviflorus within adjacent vegetation. Accordingly, habitat complexity showed a positive relationship with the abundance of key families of natural enemies and pollinators but not with the number of taxa. NMDS showed that plant richness and plant arrangement and scattering affected the key families differently, suggesting that each key family responds to their individual needs for plant resources but forming groups modulated by complexity. This pattern was especially seeing in predators and omnivores. Our findings support that the higher the plant richness and structure of a semi natural-habitat within an olive orchard, the higher the abundance and richness of a given arthropod community (a pattern found in natural ecosystems). The information presented here can be used by producers and technicians to increase the presence and abundance of natural enemies and pollinators within organic olive orchards, and thus improve the ecosystem services provided by semi-natural habitats.

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“…We noted a positive correlation between the access to and the ownership of land and the scale of the production system. Second, farming efficiency was a driving factor towards UA implementation [26,[31][32][33]38,43,47,49]. Indeed, improved production systems, where fewer inputs (fertilizer, water) were used, were a motivating factor for urban farmers to develop large farms [47].…”

Section: • Driversmentioning

confidence: 99%

What Constraints the Expansion of Urban Agriculture in Benin?

2020

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Propelled by rapid urbanization, city administrations in low- and middle-income countries face a raft of challenges to secure food and nutrition for its poor urban dwellers. Urban agriculture (UA) seems a viable intervention to address urban food insecurity, however, experience has shown that urban gardens do not expand at the expected rate. Tackling this issue requires a deeper understanding of the main constraints that block UA expansion. Benin is not an exception; the country witnesses a breathtaking growth of its main cities that is in synchronization with a mounting food insecurity. Our research aims, therefore, to identify the main constraints for the expansion of UA in Benin, and adopt a three-pronged approach combined with a systematic literature review, a survey held among experienced urban gardeners, and in-depth interviews with stakeholders. Altogether, the synthesis shows a predominance of five main constraints: lack of land and tenure insecurity, insufficient government support, restricted market access, limited access to productive factors, and inequality issues. Specifically, while the review showed that most barriers are linked and could be tackled together, the survey indicated a political unwillingness which in our in-depth interviews is explained by the unperceived benefits of investing in UA and the lack of enforcement of urban development plans. We suggest that Beninese authorities and academics move in synchronization where the former coordinates the planning of urban gardens and the latter provides evidence to trigger public and private investments in UA. The findings could be the basis for further research on UA in West Africa and the wider continent.

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Increasing plant diversity with border crops reduces insecticide use and increases crop yield in urban agriculture

Cited by 42 publications

References 52 publications

Do diverse landscapes provide for effective natural pest control in subtropical rice?

Do diverse landscapes provide for effective natural pest control in subtropical rice?

Habitat complexity in organic olive orchards modulates the abundance of natural enemies but not the attraction to plant species

What Constraints the Expansion of Urban Agriculture in Benin?

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