Abiotic Stress Tolerance in Perennial Crops

Dear Colleagues,

Pests and diseases reduce crop productivity, compromise sustainability and affect product quality. They are of particular importance in perennial crops as the damage they cause is often cumulative. Sustainable pest management methods must be sought, especially since the duration of the exploitation of these crops, generally several decades, leads to sanitary situations that are often very degraded. The use of pesticides and biocides is a major financial burden for small farmers and generally leads to negative environmental effects; the development of control strategies that reduce their impact on the environment and on product quality has become an important issue in our societies.

The objective of this Special Issue is to review the latest scientific advances in sustainable pest and disease management, mainly in perennial crops. In particular, the present paper examines how to combine environmental modifications and genetic improvements for better resistance from the perspective of sustainable agriculture. These scientific questions become particularly important in the context of climate change, which modifies the biological balance between crops and their enemies.

The mechanistic modeling of epidemics versus statistical modeling.

The impact of climate change on the "pests and diseases" x "crops" balance.

• Review articles providing a historical overview of disease and pest management.
• Articles addressing the pest and disease dispersal phenomena at the plot and territorial levels.
• The importance of cropping systems and, in particular, multi-species approaches, such as agroforestry, on pest pressures.
• How to build sustainable resistance and how to manage it to avoid circumvention.

Prof. Dr. Christian Cilas
Guest Editor

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• pest and disease management
• epidemiology
• modeling
• genetic–environment interaction
• sustainable cropping system