Advances in Temperate Fruit Pest Management

This book explores current and future challenges in managing pests of temperate fruit crops such as apples, pears, cherries, peaches, plums, and almonds. These crops are grown widely across temperate regions and are increasingly affected by a range of insect and rodent pests due to climate change, global trade, and evolving farming practices.The chapters offer a clear overview of both the problems and solutions. Initial chapters introduce key pest threats, including invasive species and quarantine pests, and explain how global conditions are influencing their spread. It discusses new technologies like artificial intelligence, drones, and pheromone-based strategies for early detection, monitoring, and control. It also addresses specific pests such as fruit flies, woolly apple aphid, and rodents in dedicated chapters and highlights biological and microbial control methods, the use of beneficial organisms like parasitoids, and resistance breeding. Other topics include the impact of soil health, the role of endophytes, and regulatory approaches in managing pest risks in global trade.This book is useful for researchers, extension workers, students, fruit growers, and policymakers. It brings together practical knowledge and recent scientific advancements to support better pest management practices in temperate orchards and ensure long-term crop health and productivity.

Dr. Mohd Abas Shah is currently serving as Scientist (Senior Scale) at the ICAR-Central Institute of Temperate Horticulture, Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir, India. Previously, he worked as a Scientist at ICAR-Central Potato Research Institute, Regional Station, Jalandhar, Punjab, India. He holds a Ph.D. in Agricultural Entomology from Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology of Kashmir (SKUAST-K), Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir, India. His research interests include sustainable management of insect and mite pests of temperate fruit crops, particularly apple, and the development of decision support systems for pest control. Dr. Shah has received several recognitions for his research, including best paper and poster awards and a gold medal for his doctoral work. He has contributed extensively to scientific literature through research papers, book chapters, and edited volumes.Prof. Akhtar Ali Khan is Professor and Head, Division of Entomology at SKUAST-K, Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir, India. With over two decades of experience in research, teaching, and extension, he previously completed multiple externally funded projects and contributed to the development of several pest management technologies. He holds a Ph.D. in Entomology from Banaras Hindu University, Uttar Pradesh, India, and a D.Sc. in Entomology. His areas of expertise include insect pest ecology and biological control. He has received numerous awards and serves on editorial boards of academic journals.