Which pest management method involves altering the crop's environment to deter pests?

• A. Habitat modification
• B. Cultivation
• C. Exclusion
• D. Chemical control

Answer: (A)

Habitat modification involves altering the crop's environment to deter pests. By changing conditions around the plants—such as removing crop residues and weeds that shelter pests, adjusting irrigation or drainage to avoid damp, improving air flow and sunlight through proper spacing, and using crop rotations or trap crops to disrupt pest life cycles—you make the growing area less favorable for pests to survive and reproduce. This preventive approach reduces pest pressure by changing the habitat rather than directly killing pests with chemicals or building barriers. Other methods rely on different mechanisms: cultivation focuses on soil and crop management, exclusion uses physical barriers to keep pests away, and chemical control depends on pesticides to reduce pest populations.