Open AccessEcological illiteracy can deepen farmers’ pesticide dependency
Author(s) -
Kris A.G. Wyckhuys,
K.L. Heong,
Francisco SánchezBayo,
Felix J.J.A. Bianchi,
Jonathan G. Lundgren,
Jeffery W. Bentley
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
environmental research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.37
H-Index - 124
ISSN - 1748-9326
DOI - 10.1088/1748-9326/ab34c9
Subject(s) - ecosystem services , biodiversity , functional illiteracy , arable land , business , cropping , environmental resource management , agroforestry , integrated pest management , agriculture , environmental planning , ecology , geography , ecosystem , biology , political science , economics , law
Nearly 2.5 billion smallholders cultivate the world’s arable land, strategically positioned to tackle multiple Anthropocene challenges. When consciously adopting ecologically-based pest management practices, they can improve resource use efficiency, slow biodiversity loss, curtail environmental pollution and safeguard human health. Yet, the effective implementation of knowledge-intensive management practices requires underlying ecological concepts to be well-understood. Here, drawing upon published social science research spanning 1910–2016, we illuminate deficiencies in the world’s farmers’ ecological literacy and in their valuation of insect-mediated ecosystem services. Though tribal people and indigenous folk possess sophisticated knowledge of insects that occur within farm settings, contemporary farmers on average know a mere 1.9–2.3 pestiferous herbivores and 0.5–0.9 pest-killing organisms (out of a respective 8 and 3 taxa) in a particular crop or cropping system. Ecosystem services such as biological pest control are annually worth hundreds of dollars ha −1 but remain unknown to nearly 70% of farmers globally. Also, agricultural systems with deficient ecological literacy tend to foster a greater dependency upon chemically-synthesized pesticides. If this ‘cognitive handicap’ can be remediated, farmers could become agro-biodiversity stewards and champions in redressing multiple aspects of global environmental change.