Modelling, analysis and control of cabbage pests: case of Plutella xylostella

Résumé

Ensuring positive economic results for smallholder farms is a major issue for the development and promotion of sustainable agriculture. This is not always easy, since pests destroy crops and considerably reduce farm yields. In addition, there are high costs related to pest management, which can be both environmentally damaging and ineffective. In the face of all these difficulties, smallholders have to find ways of generating enough profit not only to sustain their farm activities, but also to meet their own needs, as access to external finance is difficult. The main objective of this thesis is to study the long-term economic sustainability of a self-financing cabbage farm by proposing bioeconomic models. Two control strategies are implemented: chemical control using bio-insecticide and parasitoid-based biological control. Based on biological considerations, the baseline model combines the dynamics of the cabbage and the diamondback moth, a bio-insecticide and the current balance of the plantation. The first analysis confirms that the use of bioinsecticide as a pest control is effective, less expensive and suitable to the concept of self-financing. The best operating points for subsystems were defined in order to maximise the farmer's income. In addition, the thesis compares three different techniques of releasing parasitoids and we indicate the best technique based on the characteristics of the parasitoid involved and the number of releases. Hence this work presents novel results in crop protection, mathematical modelling, and dynamical systems analysis.

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