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Control of insect pests by plant genetic engineering
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 December 2011
Extract
Crop protection against pests and diseases is of prime importance and plays a major role in agricultural production both in the Developed and Developing parts of the world.
Although chemical pesticides have been in use for a long time it is only since the Second World War that a very heavy and almost exclusive reliance has been placed upon their use. This, in many cases, has resulted in the rapid build-up of resistance by insect pests to such compounds, as is illustrated by the rapidly developed resistance to the organochloride insecticides by the cotton bollworm, Heliothis virescens. Indeed, there are many examples of resistance in a major pest being observed within the first year of field use (Metcalf 1986). In some cases the indiscriminate application of pesticides has exacerbated the problem of insect herbivory where elimination of a wide range of predatory species along with the primary pests has resulted in secondary pests becoming primary pests themselves with even more devastating effects (Heinrichs & Mochida 1983).
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- Research Article
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- Copyright © Royal Society of Edinburgh 1992
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