Transition challenge to organic agriculture: A course for advancing belowground insect pest management

The global movement towards organic agriculture has aroused much criticism about its production performance. Despite efforts to prevent risks of food shortage, the negative role of soil insect pests has been marginalized, although these pests cause unmanageable crop losses. The aim of this study, therefore, is to corroborate the role played by organic inputs in soil pest attraction under field crop conditions and to identify the potential factors involved for potential use as bait for trapping soil pests. Laboratory experiments, field-cage tests and field investigations were undertaken in this study in addition to olfactory bioassay tests of the dominant soil, leaf litter, crop residue and cow dung manure volatiles likely to be involved in ovipositional site selection or shelter. The results showed that decomposing cow dung manure attracts more Holotrichia oblita during oviposition than the other treatments considered, and the associated volatile p-cresol was the best attractant. The results draw attention to the negative effect resulting from the application of decomposing organic matter and suggest a mixture including p-cresol, butanoic acid and indole as a promising alternative approach for soil insect pest control.