Difesa fitosanitaria e sicurezza alimentare

Pest management is essential to limit the damages due to the biotic agents of crop losses and obtain adequate yield characterized by high quality standards. Agricultural practice, based on the cultivation of several genetically uniform o very similar crops in contiguous fields, often provides ideal conditions for severe outbreaks of diseases/infestations due to pathogens and insects able to attack the host plant grown in a particular area. Pathogens and insects can cause serious losses, varying from 10 to 40% of the global crop production. Resistant hosts and plant protection products are the control tools most commonly utilized in order to gain effective reduction of crop damages. Since plant protection products can have harmful effects on human health, non-target organisms and environment, their registration and use are regulated in the European Community according to the precautionary principle. Moreover, the European Community countries will implement integrated protection management measures on all cultivated crops starting from 1st January 2014 and use risk indicators in order to define more rational pest management strategies.