Book reviews - Pesticides News No. 62

Rice pesticides
A fascinating new report on global rice production provides food for thought on the 10% of annual pesticide use on this crop. Overall sales of rice agrochemicals have fallen from US$3,097 million in 1996 to US$2,404 million in 2001. Herbicides account for the largest percentage (39.4%) of sales, followed by insecticides (33.7%) and fungicides (less than 25%). The increasing use of herbicides is presenting problems, with up to 15 major weed types now showing resistance to different products.
    Major differences in expenditure exist between countries. Japanese rice farmers account for 45% of all rice pesticide sales, spending $635/ha for average yields of 6.7 tonnes/ha. China, on the other hand, with yields almost comparable at 6.3 tones/ha spends just $13/ha. This is partly explained by the tight regulation of pesticides in Japan, which delivers pesticides at high cost to farmers, compared with the production and sale of generics in China, but it is clear that Chinese production is overall less reliant on pesticides. 
    In the two South East Asian countries which have had extensive Integrated Pest Management training for farmers, Indonesia and Thailand, expenditure on rice pesticides has dropped significantly between 1996 and 2001. Several factors can account for this, including the levels of production and low prices, but the drop nevertheless suggests that the IPM training has been successful, and that many farmers elsewhere are spraying unnecessarily high amounts of pesticides.
    The report covers background information on rice and its production, details of the rice agrochemical market, country agrochemical markets, the future of rice agrochemicals and company profiles. The country reports include interesting detail on the local pesticide distribution of agrochemical sales, and draws attention to key pesticide issues to be addressed.

Susan Watkins, The World Market for Crop Protection Products in Rice, Agrow Reports, PJB Publications Ltd, Richmond, UK, www.pjbpubs.com/, 2003, 145pp, £795.00.

Dictionary of entomology
This book is a comprehensive, fully cross-referenced collection of over 28,000 terms, names and phrases used in entomology, incorporating an estimated 43,000 definitions. It covers a range of issues including insect anatomy, behaviour, biology, ecology, pest management and taxonomy. The origin, etymology, part of speech, and definition of each term and phrase are provided. 
All insect order, sub-order, family, and subfamily names are given, together with the diagnostic features of orders and families. This book is an essential reference source for all professionals and students of entomology and related disciplines. 

G Gordh and DH Headrick, Dictionary of Entomology, CABI Publishing, Wallingford Oxon, OX10 8DE, www.cabi-publishing.org, 2003, 1032pp, £45.00.

[This article first appeared in Pesticides News No. 62, December 2003, page 23]