Resiliency of, adaptation of, and mitigation of risk to pest management in the postharvest agricultural supply chain in the face of ongoing climate change

Authors: Gerken, Alison; Morrison, William - Rob

Submitted to: Frontiers in Agronomy
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 5/31/2022
Publication Date: 7/1/2022
Citation: Gerken, A.R., Morrison Iii, W.R. 2022. Resiliency of, adaptation of, and mitigation of risk to pest management in the postharvest agricultural supply chain in the face of ongoing climate change. Frontiers in Agronomy. 4:918845. https://doi.org/10.3389/fagro.2022.918845.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3389/fagro.2022.918845

Interpretive Summary: Climate change is a danger to the agricultural system and will impact the availability of food to feed the world. While much attention has focused on the effects of climate change on pest management prior to harvest, much less attention and time has been devoted to determining the effects of climate change on pest management in the postharvest supply chain from farm to fork. In this study, we reviewed the literature on climate change and pest management at food facilities, and found climate change may result in shifting pest communities attacking commodities after harvest or in which commodities are grown in an area. In addition, climate change may also result in altered microclimates at food facilities, which can be tied to decreased generation times by insects, elevated damage potential, greater abundance of species, and greater need for external inputs. A variety of integrated pest management (IPM) strategies may help reduce the risk of climate change. Tactics susceptible to changes in climate showing decreased efficacy include pheromone tools, a subset of insecticides (e.g., pyrethrins and pyrethroids), and those that rely on low temperature (e.g., grain aeration, grain chilling). Tactics at food facilities showing resilience to changes in climate include packaging, other groups of insecticides, and likely sanitation. Data gaps include predicting how insects are moving under climate change, translating large climate changes into microclimate changes at food facilities, and rigorously investigating how IPM tactic efficacy varies under changing climate after harvest. Increased scrutiny of how climate change will affect pest management in the postharvest supply chain will deliver improved outcomes for the entire agricultural system.

Technical Abstract: Climate change is a danger to the agricultural system and will impact the availability of food to feed the world. While much attention has focused on the effects of climate change on pest management prior to harvest, much less attention and time has been devoted to determining the effects of climate change on pest management in the postharvest supply chain from farm to fork. Climate change may percolate to pest management at a macro level through compositional changes in which species attack commodities through distributional changes or what commodities grown in a region (and thus processed in that area). However, climate change may also result in altered microclimates at food facilities, which can be tied to decreased generation times, elevated damage potential, greater abundance of species, and greater need for external inputs. A variety of integrated pest management (IPM) strategies may help increase the resiliency of, adaptation of, and mitigation of risk of pest management to climate change. Tactics susceptible to changes in climate showing decreased efficacy include semiochemical-based, behaviorally-based tactics, a subset of insecticides (e.g., pyrethrins and pyrethroids), and those that rely on low temperature (e.g., grain aeration, grain chilling). Tactics at food facilities showing resilience to changes in climate include packaging, other groups of insecticides, and likely sanitation. Data gaps include predicting changing distributions for stored product insects under climate change, translating macro climate changes into microclimate changes at food facilities, and rigorously investigating how IPM tactic efficacy varies under changing climate. Increased scrutiny of how climate change will affect pest management in the postharvest supply chain will deliver improved outcomes for the entire agricultural system.