A Section Dedicated to the Continuously Growing Field of Pest and Disease Management

Invertebrate plant pests, like insects, mites, and nematodes, feed on plants to draw out the nutrients they need for development and growth. Similarly, plant pathogens like microorganisms (fungi and bacteria), phytoplasmas, viruses, and viroids interact with the plant tissues, representing suitable development substrates and eventually causing disease. In the face of the damage that pests and pathogens can cause, plants have evolved adaptations and mechanisms of resistance, while nature has provided antagonistic organisms that can contain pests and disease agents, limiting their deleterious effects on plants. The contribution of these organisms in regulating the population density of plant-damaging species is especially significant in the most complex, i.e., natural, ecosystems, in which interspecific biocenotic relationships evolve toward an ecological balance [1]. By contrast, an agroecosystem is characterised by a high level of simplification, often featured by monoculture conditions and anthropogenic inputs (i.e., fertilisation, irrigation, pesticidal treatments) that result in further simplification, which favours the swarming of species harmful to the crop [2].

In such a scenario, the damage caused by biotic adversities to crops can reach significant levels when their density overlaps with the so-called economic damage threshold. Consequently, the implementation of appropriate strategies to contain pest populations below such a threshold is required to ensure a satisfactory yield for the farmer [3,4]. On the other hand, any intervention measure in the agroecosystem should be environmentally safe. After all, the management of pests and diseases is a key production factor in agriculture, and various approaches have been developed over time in order to allow the economic sustainability of crops and the preservation of the environment [5].

Consistently, the regulatory framework, industry, farms, and public opinion are evolving toward increasingly sustainable approaches. Research and development represent key elements in the innovation process to achieve such a goal, hence the fundamental role of the scientific community in carrying out studies in this area. Today, more than ever, it is of vital importance to have scientific contexts that can compare and share the results of research according to an open-access policy.

If we observe the trend of the past few decades, we notice an increase in scientific publications (articles, reviews, etc.) in the field of pest and disease management. A search for articles indexed in the database Scopus using the keywords (pest) OR (plant AND disease) AND (management) produced nearly 66,000 publications in the last 30-year period (1992–2022) with a 12% compound annual growth rate (Figure 1). This trend is reflected by the journal Agronomy (ISSN: 2073-4395), for which a search using the abovementioned keywords on the same database produces around 350 documents showing a compound annual growth rate over the last 10 years period (2012–2022) of 17%, aligning with the fast growth of this young scientific journal in terms of the number of published articles. Please note that this keyword-based search is only representative of a general trend and is not inclusive of all articles that are actually published in the dedicated section. According to the keyword-based search in the database Scopus, articles published in Agronomy represent nearly 1.7% of the total articles in the field of pest and disease management published by the scientific community in the previous year (2022), which supports the need for this journal’s dedicated section.

Another area of research, closely related but not included in the previous keyword-based search, is weed control, which is a major problem and a significant cost for the farmer [6]. Consistently, additional analyses of bibliographic data related to the same 30-year period (1992–2022) were conducted using the database Scopus to specifically identify documents related to each of the following three management categories: pests, plant disease, and weeds. For this purpose, the following three keyword sets were used: (pest) AND (management); ((plant AND disease) OR (plant AND pathogen) OR (phytopathogen)) AND (management); (weed) AND (management). As a result, 45,805, 28,455, and 19,657 documents were produced, respectively, providing a quantitative and comparative dimension of the research efforts in these three groups.

The original research covered by the pest and disease management section of Agronomy includes basic and applied research on biology, ecology, and the control of pests and plant pathogenic agents related to all types of crops and orchards during the pre-harvest and post-harvest stages. Control methods may range from chemical to non-chemical approaches, with particular emphasis on modern and advancing technologies such as studies on biopesticides and the wide variety of bio-based solutions [7,8,9].

In order to gain a more in-depth picture of the present trend and future outlook in scientific research within the aforementioned three categories of pest, plant disease and weed management, bibliographic data obtained from the Scopus database and referring to the last 5 years (2017–2022), were exported as RIS files (including document titles, keywords and abstracts) and analysed using software VOSviewer version 1.6.20 [10] to visualise the co-keyword network for individual categories. On this basis, nearly 20,000 documents were listed for “Pest management”, grouped into six main clusters, including major topics such as pest control, biological control, insecticide, crop pest biology and ecology, invasive species, agriculture, climate change, biodiversity, natural enemies, insecticide resistance, genetics (to mention just a few), which summarises the breadth and diversity of original scientific research subjects within this category (Figure 2). Similarly, nearly 15,000 bibliographic documents were identified for “Plant disease management”, highlighting the most frequent keywords and distinguishing two strands of research concerning the use of plant extracts for human health (off-topic from the scope of this editorial) and the defence of plants against disease agents. This latter includes articles on bacterial, fungal, and viral pathogens, their genetic, biochemical, and microbiological features, pathogenicity and endophytic mechanisms, plant physiology, growth, health, water management, and climate change implications (Figure 3). Finally, the category “Weed management” appears to be represented by a comparatively lower but still significant number of publications (nearly 7000) covering a wide variety of topics, including studies on herbicides and weed control, herbicide resistance, chemistry and allelopathy, biodiversity and invasive species, agricultural crop protection and farming systems, water management, and biodegradation (Figure 4).

Thus, regardless of category, the topic of pest and disease management in a broad sense appears to be extremely diverse and inclusive, ranging from highly specific studies on particular targets (pests, disease agents, weeds) leveraging the most modern omics and technologies, to classical scientific approaches based on field sampling and observations. In addition to the economic sustainability of crops environmental protection issues are emerging as a topic of primary importance, alongside other cross-cutting global issues like climate change and water management, influencing local plant protection choices. The search for effective innovations with a low environmental impact thus becomes increasingly urgent, which justifies and explains the continuous increase in studies in this area, indicating a future characterised by further research impulses.

In accordance with recent estimates, even market interest in this field is expected to continue to increase [11], which makes it even more important to have publishing spaces in an open innovation perspective under a continued rigorous process of peer review to ensure the reliability and quality of scientific papers.

In this, the pest and disease management section of Agronomy meets the current and forward-looking needs of research.