Refuge Crop

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Basics

  • An aspect of Integrated Pest Management wherein a certain amount of Disease Resistant Seed (Such as Maize or Soybean etc) is co-planted with more "conventional" varieties to reduce, or at least slow, the evolution of Resistances to that "technology" due to the selection pressure being less / the resistance genes being diluted by "normal" pests
  • A more basic strategy is planting separate rows etc, but this could reduce yields significanly
  • Modern OTS Hybrid Seeds tend to have 5% Refuge Crops (Identifiable by a different color Seed Coating )

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