Host plant resistance to insects: an eco-friendly approach for pest management and environment conservation

Host plant resistance (HPR) to insects is an effective, economical, and environment friendly method of pest control. The most attractive feature of HPR is that farmers virtually do not need any skill in application techniques, and there is no cash investment by the resource poor farmers. Considerable progress has been made in identification and development of crop cultivars with resistance to the major pests in different crops. There is a need to transfer resistance genes into high-yielding cultivars with adaptation to different agro-ecosystems. Resistance to insects should form one of the criteria to release varieties and hybrids for cultivation by the farmers. Genes from the wild relatives of crops, and novel genes, such as those from Bacillus thuringiensis can also be deployed in different crops to make HPR an effective weapon to minimize the losses due to insect pests. HPR will not only cause a major reduction in pesticide use and slowdown the rate of development of resistance to insecticides in insect populations, but also lead to increased activity of beneficial organisms and reduction in pesticide residues in food and food products.