Ecological control of rice pest/disease and application in Southwest China

Climate change, planting systems, crop cultivations, environment pollution and other factors have aggravated the degree of harm caused by rice diseases and insect pests. To that end, the prevention and control of rice diseases/pests have become increasingly important for rice production operations. Due, however, to labor scarcity in villages and cultural limitations, chemicals have been increasingly used to control rice diseases/pests. This has in turn caused not only environmental pollution, but also threatened food safety. In the face of the above conditions, excellent traditional agricultural plant protection technologies have been invented and improved to control rice diseases/pests in line with modern science and technology. Thus in the practice of rice production in South-west China, comprehensive eco-technologies have been widely used at extension demonstrations besides the use of chemicals to control rice diseases/pests. These eco-technologies cut across agricultural, physical and biological bases. Compared with chemical control, comprehensive eco-technologies have the advantage of controlling rice diseases/pests and protecting the environment. Thus this paper reviewed and summarized main eco-technologies in Southwestern China used to control rice diseases/pests. The paper also analyzed application modes and effects of these technologies. The review noted that it was effective to control rice blast by intercrop-ping hybrid rice with glutinous rice under high labor conditions. Rice-duck farming controlled rice sheath blight and rice planthop-pers, but at the same time needed high tech and market conditions. Notwithstanding, some effective biotechnologies such as sex phe-romone, biopesticide, etc. existed in the paddy fields of Southwest China.