Entomologia, ornitologia e herpetologia: pesquisas atuais
Acesso livre

Abstrato

Major Pests in Wheat and its Symptoms

Ronald Ross

Wheat is one of the major cereal crops with annual global production over 600 MT from about 200 M hectares (FAO
2012). The cultivation of wheat started about 10,000 years ago as part of the Neolithic revolution which state a
transition from hunting and gathering of food to settle agriculture. Earlier cultivated forms of wheat were diploid
(einkorn) and tetraploid (emmer) with known initial origin of the south-eastern part of Turkey. Subsequent
evolutionary adaptation and continuous research produced hexaploid bread wheat that is currently widely adapted in
about 95% area of world wheat. Globally, all crop production practices are being highly challeged by biotic and
abiotic stresses. Biotic stresses especially insect pests and dieseases causes devastating damage in terms of yield and
quality. On average pests cause 20-37% yield losses worldwide which translates to approximately $70 billion annually
(Pimentel et al., 1997)? In agro-ecosystems, herbivore insects are abudant and likely to colonise within same
population and disperse from one crop field to another depending on the availablility of plant tissues and feeding
behaviour of insects.