Sustainable Crop Protection Under Field Conditions: Managing Pests and Diseases
A special issue of Agronomy (ISSN 2073-4395). This special issue belongs to the section "Pest and Disease Management".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 October 2026 | Viewed by 319
Editors
Interests: cereal diseases; the impact of climate change on the spread of diseases and pests; integrated pest management
Interests: integrated pest management (IPM); insect pests; insecticide resistance; crop protection; agroecosystems; pest monitoring; sustainable agriculture
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Crop production systems worldwide face increasing pressure from a wide range of biotic stressors, particularly insect pests and plant diseases, which significantly reduce crop yield, quality, and economic returns. Under field conditions, these challenges are further intensified by climate variability, evolving pest and pathogen populations, and the widespread development of resistance to pesticides. As a result, crop protection strategies must move beyond single-target approaches and adopt integrated, data-driven solutions that are both effective and environmentally sustainable.
This Special Issue aims to provide a comprehensive platform for high-quality research addressing sustainable crop protection under realistic field conditions, with a particular focus on the integrated management of insect pests and plant diseases. We welcome original research articles and reviews that contribute to improving the understanding of pest and disease dynamics, monitoring approaches, and management strategies relevant to modern agroecosystems.
The scope of this Special Issue includes, but is not limited to, insect pest biology and population dynamics, plant disease epidemiology, pest and disease monitoring and forecasting, insecticide and fungicide efficacy, resistance development and management, optimization of application timing, and decision-support tools for crop protection. Studies investigating interactions among pests, pathogens, host plants, agronomic practices, and environmental factors are particularly encouraged.
Laboratory- and greenhouse-based studies are also welcome, provided that their objectives and outcomes are clearly linked to field relevance and practical crop protection applications. Contributions based on field experiments, laboratory bioassays, controlled-environment studies, modeling approaches, and applied case studies across different crops and geographic regions are all within scope.
By integrating perspectives from entomology, plant pathology, and agronomy, this Special Issue seeks to promote practical, science-based crop protection strategies that reduce reliance on chemical inputs, support sustainable agricultural production, and enhance the resilience of agroecosystems under real farming conditions.
Dr. Roma Semaškienė
Guest Editor
Dr. Mohammad Almogdad
Guest Editor Assistant
Manuscript Submission Information
Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.
Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-anonymized peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Agronomy is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.
Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.
Keywords
- crop protection
- insect pests
- plant diseases
- IPM
- IDM
- field conditions
- laboratory studies
- pesticide resistance
- sustainable agriculture
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