NEW PERSPECTIVES IN PLANT PROTECTION Edited by Ali R. Bandani New Perspectives in Plant Protection Edited by Ali R. Bandani Published by InTech Janeza Trdine 9, 51000 Rijeka, Croatia Copyright © 2012 InTech All chapters are Open Access distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license, which allows users to download, copy and build upon published articles even for commercial purposes, as long as the author and publisher are properly credited, which ensures maximum dissemination and a wider impact of our publications. After this work has been published by InTech, authors have the right to republish it, in whole or part, in any publication of which they are the author, and to make other personal use of the work. Any republication, referencing or personal use of the work must explicitly identify the original source. As for readers, this license allows users to download, copy and build upon published chapters even for commercial purposes, as long as the author and publisher are properly credited, which ensures maximum dissemination and a wider impact of our publications. Notice Statements and opinions expressed in the chapters are these of the individual contributors and not necessarily those of the editors or publisher. No responsibility is accepted for the accuracy of information contained in the published chapters. The publisher assumes no responsibility for any damage or injury to persons or property arising out of the use of any materials, instructions, methods or ideas contained in the book. Publishing Process Manager Ivona Lovric Technical Editor Teodora Smiljanic Cover Designer InTech Design Team First published April, 2012 Printed in Croatia A free online edition of this book is available at www.intechopen.com Additional hard copies can be obtained from [email protected] New Perspectives in Plant Protection, Edited by Ali R. Bandani p. cm. ISBN 978-953-51-0490-2 Contents Preface IX Chapter 1 Toward Sustainable Pest Control: Back to the Future in Case of Kazakhstan 1 Kazbek Toleubayev Chapter 2 Integrated Pest Management in Chickpea 19 Yassine Mabrouk and Omrane Belhadj Chapter 3 Honeybee Communication and Pollination 39 Guntima Suwannapong, Daren Michael Eiri and Mark Eric Benbow Chapter 4 Managing Threats to the Health of Tree Plantations in Asia 63 Bernard Dell, Daping Xu and Pham Quang Thu Chapter 5 Toxicity of Aromatic Plants and Their Constituents Against Coleopteran Stored Products Insect Pests 93 Soon-Il Kim, Young-Joon Ahn and Hyung-Wook Kwon Chapter 6 Trail Pheromones in Pest Control 121 Ashraf Mohamed Ali Mashaly, Mahmoud Fadl Ali and Mohamed Saleh Al-Khalifa Chapter 7 Exploiting Plant Innate Immunity to Protect Crops Against Biotic Stress: Chitosaccharides as Natural and Suitable Candidates for this Purpose 139 Alejandro B. Falcón-Rodríguez, Guillaume Wégria and Juan-Carlos Cabrera Chapter 8 Interaction Between Nitrogen and Chemical Plant Protection in Yield Formation of Cereal Crops 167 Alicja Pecio and Janusz Smagacz VI Contents Chapter 9 Advances in Micropropagation of a Highly Important Cassia species- A Review 191 M. Anis, Iram Siddique, Ruphi Naz, M. Rafique Ahmed and Ibrahim M. Aref Chapter 10 Lectins and Their Roles in Pests Control 207 J. Karimi, M. Allahyari and A. R. Bandani Chapter 11 Plant Proteinaceous α-Amylase and Proteinase Inhibitors and Their Use in Insect Pest Control 229 Mohammad Mehrabadi, Octavio L. Franco and Ali R. Bandani Preface Crop losses by pests (insects, diseases and weeds) are as old as plant themselves but as agriculture are intensified and cropping patterns including the cultivation of high yielding varieties and hybrids are changing over time the impact of the pests becoming increasingly important. Approximately less than 1000 insect species (roughly 600-800 species), 1500 -2000 plant species, numerous fungal, bacterial and nematode species as well as viruses are considered serious pests in agriculture. If these pests were not properly controlled, crop yields and their quality would drop, considerably. In addition production costs as well as food and fiber prices are increased. Despite our best efforts, estimation shows that approximately between 30 – 40 % of the agricultural production are lost due to pest infestation. For example in the USA (United States of America) overall losses of crop production estimated to be about 37%. These reduced yields are further increased if post-harvest losses by insect and other pests are considered, so that in some tropical and subtropical countries, where climate conditions favour the damaging function of pests, over 50% of the yield may be lost due to pests. Thus, it is not uncommon to find places that presence of an insect or a pathogen limits or completely inhibits agricultural practices. Moreover, some insect are vectors of most devastating diseases which afflict plants and even mankind. The impacts of these diseases transferred by vectors on losses of the crops and human lives are enormous. Considerable attempts including agricultural, mechanical, chemical, biological, biotechnological and IPM (integrated pest management) approaches have been practiced to mitigate the effect of these pests in agriculture. However, Efficacy of crop protection practices against plant pests was variable worldwide ranging from a few to higher than 70%. Thus, the percentage of losses prevented ranged from 30 – 35% in Central Africa to about 70 % in Northwest Europe. In East Asia, North America and South Europe efficacy was reported to be about 50-60%. Efficacy of crop protection has increased in recent years due to the use of selective and effective pesticides, the use of genetically modified crops especially in North and South America as well in Asia, where China is the country with the highest amount of land under GMOs (Genetically modified organisms) culture, and implementation of IPM program and better training of farmers by governmental and nongovernmental organization (NGOs). Although X Preface acceptable level of pesticide use is appropriate, in some regions inappropriate and excessive pesticide use (especially insecticide) led to increased pest outbreaks, pest resistance, secondary pest outbreaks, environment and food contamination. However, it should be mentioned that pesticide are irreplaceable in some agricultural products at present since efficacy and reliability of bio-control agents are limited but reliance on pesticides could be reduced using IPM programs. The current book is going to put Plant Protection approaches in perspective. Thus, the aim was to put forward new ideas in order to give scientists up to date knowledge regarding plant protection strategies. The book is designed in the following 11 chapters: • Toward Sustainable Pest Control: Back to the Future in Case of Kazakhstan • Integrated Pest Management in Chickpea • Honeybee Communication and Pollination • Managing Threats to the Health of Tree Plantations in Asia • Toxicity of Aromatic Plants and Their Constituents Against Coleopteran Stored Products Insect Pests • Trail Pheromone in Pest Control • Exploiting Plant Innate Immunity to Protect Crops Against Biotic Stress: Chitosaccharides as Natural and Suitable Candidates for this Purpose • Interaction Between Nitrogen and Chemical Plant Protection in Yield Formation of Cereal Crops • Advances in Micropropagation of a Highly Important Cassia species- A Review • Lectins and Their Roles in Pest Control • Plant Proteinaceous α-Amylase and Proteinase Inhibitors and Their Use in Insect Pest Control It is hoped that current book will strengthen the case of plant protection using non chemical methods. Ali R. Bandani Plant Protection Department University of Tehran, Tehran Iran 1 Toward Sustainable Pest Control: Back to the Future in Case of Kazakhstan Kazbek Toleubayev The Kazakh Research Institute for Plant Protection and Quarantine Kazakhstan 1. Introduction Problems related to pest control and pesticide use in agriculture can be found in similar forms across the world. Worldwide, crop production losses from agricultural pests average 35-40% before harvest and 10-15% after harvest (e.g. Oerke et al., 1994; Struik & Kropff, 2003). After the introduction of synthetic pesticides after World War II, agriculture in many countries became reliant on chemical pest control. In the 1960s, the environmental and health problems became apparent, as did the problems of pests becoming resistant to pesticides and the destruction of natural enemies leading to pest resurgence and secondary pest outbreaks. Farmers often use pesticides injudiciously, and find themselves caught on a pesticide treadmill, which increases the social, environmental and economic costs of chemical control (Bale et al., 2008; Carson, 1962; Kishi, 2005; Palladino, 1996; Perkins, 1982; Pretty & Waibel, 2005). These problems with pesticides gave way to the Integrated Pest Management (IPM) approach, which utilises ecological principles to manage agro- ecosystems in an economically and environmentally sustainable fashion (Kogan, 1998, 1999; Morse & Buhler, 1997; Struik & Kropff, 2003). IPM has become an alternative approach to exclusive reliance on pesticides as the sole means of pest control (Van Huis & Meerman, 1997). This change in approach has been quite widely accepted, although not universally. This chapter explores the case of Kazakhstan where integrated pest management, once widely practised, has given way to an exclusive reliance on pesticides. IPM/ecology-based pest-control approaches were extensively developed and practised in the 1970s and 1980s