Development and Implementation of an Environmentally Conscious System for Producing Cruciferous Vegetables by Small Farms in a Hilly and Mountainous Area of Western Japan

Japan Agricultural Research Quarterly
ISSN 00213551
NII recode ID (NCID) AA0068709X
Full text
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We report here on the development of a system for producing cruciferous vegetables without using chemical pesticides. This system enables small-scale farmers in hilly and mountainous areas in the western region of Japan to grow products of equivalent volume and quality to those produced by standard practices. The first steps in developing the system involved modifying and creating methods to protect cruciferous vegetables against insect pests. Crops were protected from flying pests, such as the white cabbage butterfly, cabbage armyworm, diamondback moth, cabbage sawfly, leafminer fly, cabbage bug, striped flea beetle, and brassica leaf beetle using a 0.6 mm mesh screen. Bacillus thuringiensis preparations, the use of which is permitted by Japanese Agricultural Standards for organic plants and organic processed foods of plant origin, were used to prevent damage caused by butterfly larvae, (white cabbage butterfly, cabbage armyworm, and diamondback moth) that hatch from eggs deposited on the outer surface of the screen through which they can invade. Invasion by crawling pests, such as the striped flea and brassica leaf beetles, was suppressed by covering the ground around the greenhouse with a mulching sheet to control weeds that form the habitat for these pests. Aphids passing through the 0.6 mm mesh screen were eliminated by a banker plant system employing the aphid parasite Diaeretiella rapae (McIntosh), a natural predator. Solarizing the soil before cultivation destroyed the pests' larvae, pupae, or eggs residing underground, such as those of the striped flea beetle and cutworm, while pest damage by vegetable weevils was prevented by inserting our newly invented traps just underground. The second step in developing the system involved dealing with higher greenhouse temperatures during summer that would result from the 0.6 mm mesh screen cover. To keep the wet bulb globe temperature (WBGT) around the worker within acceptable limits, a battery-powered ventilator consisting of a cart, fan, solar battery, and ordinary battery was used as well as installing simple roof windows, all of which effectively lowered the WBGTs. By combining these methods, we were able to demonstrate that the system was highly effective for producing quality cruciferous vegetables in greenhouses and in open fields.

Date of issued
Creator HAGIMORI Manabu NAGASAKA Koukichi OJIMA Kazushi ABE Jun-ichiro SHIMAZU Teruaki HAMAMOTO Hiroshi KAMENO Tadashi KUMAKURA Hiroshi
Subject

Banker plant system

integrated pest management

insect proof screen

organic farming

solarization

Publisher Japan International Research Center for Agricultural Sciences
Available Online
NII resource type vocabulary Journal Article
Volume 46
Issue 1
spage 15
epage 25
DOI 10.6090/jarq.46.15
Rights Japan International Research Center for Agricultural Sciences
Language eng

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