Preliminary study of crop protection problems in selected Latin American countries

The losses due to pests have already reached levels of intolerance in most of the countries visited. We have reason to predict that losses will escalate as additional new agricultural technology is introduced and adopted. Few of the areas visited have adequate program capability to mount the pest management programs required to protect the principle food and fiber crops against destructive pest attacks. Pest management programs, which include the proper management and use of pesticides, must receive more attention in the future than in the past if the potential gains of the "green revolution" are to be realized and insured. The only means of coping with the pesticide management problems of the developing nations is to develop more adequate pest management (crop protection) programs within which the use of pesticides can be regulated and placed in proper perspective as one of several means of "managing" pest populations below the economic threshold. The report gives the rationale basic to our concern for pest management problems in developing nations and recommends several actions that might be taken to abate them. It outlines the increasing crop protection problems resulting from the great agricultural changes already achieved and anticipated. This general thesis is supported by a number of observations in the countries visited. General observations of crop protection programs and problems are summarized in Section 4. Among topics discussed are plant quarantine, pesticide management, biological control, crop losses due to pests, and crop protection capabilities.