Insects as Allies – March 2012 – Issue 14.1

Insects provide vital ecosystem services to agriculture like pollination and pest control. These services which are available ‘freely’ in nature are crucial for sustaining food production. Having ignored this fact, in our greed to produce more, we have resorted to modern agriculture methods requiring high use of chemicals, causing extensive damage to the providers of ecosystem services. The results are quite evident – declining food production, degraded natural resources, increasing food insecurity and poverty levels. Its time to rethink and return back to a eco system based approach to agriculture which respects and allows other forms of life in the ecosystem to survive, thereby contributing to our survival. This issue primarily looks at the role of insects in sustainable agriculture.
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