Department of Crop, Soil and Pest Management, Federal University of Technology, Akure,Nigeria.
email: foadekayode@futa.edu.ng
Abstract
The decreased food production, increases in the prices of food, growing production of bio-fuelsare part of the causes for the current rates of food scarcity particularly in less developed countries. Global warming, crop diversity loss and urban sprawl also affect agricultural production. The increasing human population in the less developed countries have put greater pressure on the land leading to destruction of vital forest resources and the overexploitation of cultivable land. The build-up of human-generated greenhouse gases both in the developed and the less developed countries has been the main cause of climate change that threatens food security and healthy environment. Effective soil, crop and pest management techniques have been proved the possible ways to minimise environmental degradation, pollution of surface water and contributing to the mitigation and adaptation of climate change. Appropriate tillage practices and application of organic and inorganic fertilizers coupled with introduction and production of improved crop varieties that are early maturing, high yielding and resistant to plant and diseases have ensured the desirable food security. The control of weed, can be achieved through tillage practices and appropriate application of herbicides while the control of insect pests and diseases through application of insecticides, fungicides, nematicides and other agro-chemicals or the biological control methods, can result in high crop yield.
Keywords: Population growth, food production, climate change, tillage practices, fertilizer application, pest control.