Crop protection agent
A crop protection active ingredient is an active ingredient that is used in crops to heal, alleviate or prevent diseases or pests. Several hundred different active ingredients have been positively tested by the state as pesticides against biological organisms that damage useful plants (e.g. insects, fungi, other plants) and approved for use. Preparations which, in addition to the active ingredient in pesticides, contain additives that improve the effect or facilitate application are called pesticides . These agents may only be acquired and used in agriculture with a certificate of expertise in plant protection .
There are basically two modes of action:
- Contact pesticides; Plant diseases are prevented or cured through direct contact with the pesticide, biting and eating pests are repelled or rendered harmless.
- Advantage: quick action against plant diseases and pests.
- Disadvantage: only parts of the plant hit by the spray jet are protected.
- Plant protection products with a systemic effect penetrate the plants.
- Advantage: the active ingredient is transported in the sap stream to all parts of the treated plants (including roots and new plant parts) and thus provides extensive protection, and sucking insects are also combated.
- Disadvantages: The user's professional competence is necessary to prevent disease and pests from developing resistance . The waiting time between application and harvest specified in the instructions for use must be observed in order to prevent residues of the active ingredient or its metabolites in the food or feed, or at least to minimize it to the permitted daily dose .
In agricultural practice, combinations of both active groups are usually used in order to use the respective advantages or to compensate for the disadvantages. However, the miscibility of the various active ingredients must be taken into account.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Bernd Schäfer: Natural substances of the chemical industry , Elsevier GmbH, Spektrum Verlag, 2007, pp. 467-512, ISBN 978-3-8274-1614-8 .
- ↑ Mixing of pesticides using the example of herbicides