Why Is Agrochemical Protection against Pests and Diseases Less Necessary?
For a variety of reasons, rice plants grown with SRI methods are more resistant to pests and diseases, making it less or not cost-effective for farmers to use agrochemical means of protection. Commonly there is not enough damage and loss to justify the expenditure and labor for spraying. One possible explanation for SRI resistance to pests is that plants are grown in unflooded soil will have more uptake of silicon. This would account for the stalks (tillers) and leaves on SRI plants being tougher and stronger, resisting being blown over and lodged by strong winds and rain. Insects would also be deterred by this particular quality. A theory called trophobiosis, proposed by a French agricultural scientist (Chaboussou, 2004), is consistent with what we observe with SRI, because it uses little or no chemical fertilizer and also little or no agrochemicals. According to Chaboussous theory, plants vulnerability to attacks by insects, bacteria, fungi, even viruses, is directly a consequence of
