ABSTRACT
Pre and postharvest losses in agriculture result in decline of potential yield in almost all crops. However, it becomes a real concern when pests invade food crops like cereals, oil seeds, fruits, and vegetables. These losses are primarily caused by insect, weeds, and microbial pests and could be managed to economic threshold levels by the use of pesticides. In Pakistan, pesticides were introduced in 1953 to manage locust attacks in cereals and resulted in wide adoption by the farming community. The pesticide sector was owned by the government up to 1980 and then was privatized. The robust emergence of pesticides as an important sector was started in late 1980s and achieved economic peak in 1992–1996 due to white fly-driven CLCV disaster in cotton crop. There are important issues of AI determination, selection of proper pesticide for a particular insect pest, application procedure, detection of adulterations, residual effects of chemicals on human and animal health, ecosafety, cost, tax fixation, and possible assessment of risk factors; all are critical regarding pesticides usage in Pakistan. This chapter also emphasizes the use of alternative ways to adapt safer and ecofriendly biopesticides.
