Parallel developments in crop-protecting agents agrochemicals

4 Parallel developments in crop-protecting agents Agrochemicals 

Progress, parallel to that discussed for the chemotherapy of mammals, has also taken place in agriculture where the farmer must prevent, and even cure, the invasion of his crops by weeds, insects, and fungi. Interest in insecticides has a still broader base, because insects are also ectoparasites of Man and his domestic animals, and the vectors of infectious diseases. Insects have been wasting about 14% of the World s annual crop production, moreover plant diseases (caused by fungi or worms) waste another 12%, weeds another 9%, and rodents perhaps another 10%, an estimated total of 1800 million tons (see Cramer, 1967). 

This Section (6.4) is divided into (6.4.1) insecticides, with further data on insect repellants and ectoparasites, (6.4.2) fungicides, (6.4.3) herbicides (weed killers), and (6.4.4) other pesticides, including defoliants, plant antiviral agents, anthelmintics, molluscicides, and rodenticides. 

Appropriate reading is suggested after each subject, but works which cover all aspects of pesticides will be given now. For the chemistry of pesticides, uses and mode of action, see Hassall (1982) and Biichel (1983) for selectivity in pesticides, see Street (1975) for the principles of the distribution and physical behaviour of pesticides, see Hartley and Graham-Bryce (1980-1), and for a manual that includes all commonly used pesticides, see Worthing (1983). 

Periodicals, with commencing dates, include Pesticide Biochemistry and Physiology (1970), Pesticide Chemistry (1972), Advances in Pesticides (1977), and Progress in Pesticide Biochemistry (1981). For a study of the action of pollutants on ecosystems (with special reference to chlorinated hydrocarbons) see Moriarty (1983). 

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