Generative AI holds ample potential to make agri-food systems more productive, resilient, and nature-friendly, but also poses risks. Here, following a methodical assessment of AI-generated advice on crop protection provided by ChatGPT-5, DeepSeek 3.1 up to 3.2-Exp, NormAI, KissanAI and VirtualAgronomist, we reveal systematic biases, faulty recommendations, and unethical machine behavior. As proprietary AI-powered advisories tend to favor commodified inputs and restrict the plurality of non-chemical alternatives, they may create informational biases that could, in turn, influence farmers' uptake of agroecological and biodiversity-driven solutions. For instance, whereas biological control, soil health and diversification tactics carry notable social-environmental benefits, they are systematically downgraded or even excluded by certain AI systems. Over time, such input-oriented foci can reinforce farmers' dependencies on purchased products - thereby eventually and inadvertently fueling pest proliferation, inflicting environmental harm, and eroding ecosystem services. Greater scrutiny, robust governance, and tailored regulations are urgently needed to safeguard environmental integrity and farmer livelihoods.

Generative artificial intelligence (AI) could transform evidence synthesis and revolutionize the global scientific enterprise, yet its agricultural applications are understudied. Here, we systematically assess the performance of three web-grounded AI engines (ChatGPT, ScholarAI and DeepSeek) in synthesizing the global literature on biological control of the fall armyworm Spodoptera frugiperda, and benchmark their outputs against a recent, near-exhaustive human review. Though all engines rapidly screened vast literature corpora, they exhibited shortcomings in factual accuracy, reporting reliability and data consistency. In machine-run syntheses, natural enemy prevalence and performance data often diverged from published records while the level of agreement in enumerating top-performing taxa was evenly low. Meanwhile, internal consistency between laboratory and field-level parasitism data for ScholarAI and DeepSeek was similar to that in human-run reviews. All models tended towards faulty data extrapolation, hallucination and data fabrication, and a sporadic exclusion of key species. While autonomous, machine-only efforts accurately capture coarse-grained patterns in natural enemy identity, abundance, and impacts, they carry limited utility for (living) evidence syntheses or rigorous decision-support. Yet, handled with prudence and due human oversight, machine power might eventually revitalize underfunded disciplines and advance nature-friendly farming.

An eye-opening study unveils how rice-fish co-culture, an agricultural heritage system, boosts rice productivity by improving plant nutrition and strengthening biological pest control through multiple pathways. This allows for a deeper integration of agro-ecological and biodiversity-driven practices in modern farming.

BACKGROUND:The hoverfly Episyrphus balteatus (Diptera: Syrphidae) contributes to crop pollination and biological control; however, these two essential ecosystem services are seldom jointly assessed. Here, we evaluate the pollination efficacy and aphid control performance of mass-reared E. balteatus in three greenhouse horticultural crops, i.e. tomato, eggplant, and muskmelon. In addition, fruit quality parameters were compared among crops subjected to hoverfly pollination and hormone treatment. RESULTS:Under E. balteatus treatments, fruit set in tomato, muskmelon, and eggplant was raised to rates above 97%. Hoverflies equally contributed to biological control of the aphid Aphis gossypii, achieving high control efficiency. The aphid biological control efficacy was 88% in muskmelon and 92% in eggplant under a hoverfly:aphid ratio of 1:200. Compared to hormone treatments, fruits pollinated by E. balteatus exhibited more symmetrical and rounded shapes along with enhanced nutrient content. CONCLUSION:Our study demonstrates that hoverfly-mediated pollination and biological control services bolster the yield and quality of crops, providing forward momentum for more sustainable forms of agri-food production in China and abroad. © 2026 Society of Chemical Industry.

Multitrophic interactions can strongly influence the structure and functioning of ecosystems, but how plant diversity influences the direction and predictability of multitrophic interactions across agricultural and natural ecosystems remains unclear. Using 149 field studies across five continents, we found that, on average, increasing plant diversity tended to exert differential top-down and bottom-up effects in croplands versus grasslands and forests. Organic and nonorganic croplands exhibited 846 and 148% higher invertebrate natural enemy-to-herbivore abundance ratios under increased plant diversity, consistent with top-down control patterns where predator gains cause herbivore declines, enhancing crop outcomes. In grasslands and forests, increasing plant diversity was associated with bottom-up effects where enhanced productivity increased both herbivore and predator populations, with the enemy-to-herbivore ratio increasing 4.73% for grasslands and 21.2% for forests. Our findings suggest that biodiversity effects on productivity are not solely explained by direct plant-plant interactions and the resulting biodiversity-productivity relationship. Rather, they reveal patterns consistent with the framework of top-down and bottom-up effects, the relative balance of which may vary depending on ecosystem and management type. The magnitude of the effects of diversified farming on crop pests suggests that crop diversification may be an important avenue for managing crop pests preventatively and thereby enhancing agricultural sustainability.

As key components of terrestrial ecosystems, fungi play vital roles in ecological processes and functions, and are associated with innumerable plant, vertebrate, and arthropod taxa. Among arthropod taxa, aphids (Hemiptera) are commonly found in both natural and agricultural ecosystems, where some species cause substantial crop damage. Here, we provide a novel and unique dataset, AphidFunga, compiling associations between fungi and aphids extracted from 412 scientific publications, spanning 167 years and covering 85 countries. Fungal and aphid taxonomies were revised to recent nomenclature, whereas association types were updated based on current knowledge. The AphidFunga database currently contains 2993 aphid-fungal association records, linking 365 aphid host taxa (species or genera) with 149 fungal taxa, 95% of which are entomopathogenic. The database is available in three formats: a combined comma-separated data table, a set of R data frames, and a MySQL relational database. The AphidFunga database lays the foundation for further research on fungus-mediated ecosystem processes and functions, and supports conservation science, policy development, and applications in crop protection and environmental management.

Crop-feeding herbivores reduce the world's food output by approximately 20% and climate change (CC) is bound to deepen those losses. Endemic or introduced consumer organisms (i.e., biological control agents) naturally regulate herbivore populations and secure a quarter of crop yields, but are exceptionally susceptible to CC-related disturbances. Here, we use niche modeling for 14 globally-important herbivores (or pests) to forecast how richness of the associated biological control agents of each pest-as a proxy of service strength-may alter under a CC-driven range expansion. Results show that 57%-100% of pests are bound to lose parasitoid and predator associates. The cassava mealybug Phenacoccus manihoti may experience a 27% decline in parasitoid pressure, whereas cosmopolitan pests of cereal and horticultural crops benefit from 6% to 7% drops in predator pressure. Such 'enemy release' can possibly exacerbate pest-induced yield losses and threaten future harvests. Ant-pest associations change in both directions, implying that pests may either face strengthened or weakened biological control. For pests spreading towards or within food-deficit regions in the equatorial belt, parasitoid declines and increases in ant pressure are most pronounced. By exposing the fragility of biodiversity-based ecological safeguards in farmland, our work calls for urgent, integrative, and nature-friendly solutions to uphold food security under environmental change.

Science, technological innovation and farmer ingenuity can, in principle, drive transformations of food systems. Yet, in practice, this is routinely hampered by locked-in technological regimes, a lack of inter- or transdisciplinary research, and reductionist approaches to problem solving. Here we explore six leverage points through a systems-thinking lens that can generate vital forward momentum for agroecological transitions and put food systems firmly on a track to benefit people, nature and the planet.

Abstract Maximising ecosystem service (ES) benefits while minimising ecosystem disservices (EDS) is essential for ecological intensification in annual crop systems. Yet ecosystem disservices are often underreported in the scientific literature, potentially biasing how agroecosystem functioning is understood. To test this, we built a predicted network of plausible links between ecosystem service providers (taxa or functional groups that can deliver ecosystem services or disservices), and the ES or EDS they may provide. We then compared this with a realised network based on systematic Scopus searches of annual crop literature. The predicted network contained 47 nodes and 103 links, whereas the realised network contained 33 nodes and 58 links, representing declines of 29.8% in nodes and 43.7% in links. Overall connectivity declined, especially for highly connected nodes, and four of the nine predicted disservice nodes were absent from the literature. ES links were more likely to be documented than EDS links, and EDS links were three times more likely to be absent. Across all links, ES were reported in 6.6 times more papers than EDS. Projected networks, which map indirect connections by linking ES directly to EDS if they share common providers, showed that these bundled interactions were strongly reduced, obscuring multifunctionality and trade-offs. This systematic underrepresentation of EDS, reflecting a cognitive bias, can inflate perceived benefits, distort the evaluation of key taxa and interactions, and create unrealistic expectations about intervention outcomes in biological crop protection. Addressing EDS alongside ES is therefore essential for more balanced assessments of crop-system management and better-informed decisions.

Functional plants are species or multi-species assemblages that are intentionally incorporated into agricultural landscapes to enhance pest control and contribute to overall agroecosystem health. Their deployment on-farm or in the wider landscape can enhance natural biological control of insect pests, weeds, and diseases, while also bolster pollination, soil health, and other ecosystem services. This is achieved through both direct and indirect interactions between the functional plants and the resident organisms within the agroecosystem. Interest in the use of functional plants for enhancing biological control has increased in recent years, as researchers and practitioners aim to leverage nature-based solutions to reduce dependence on synthetic pesticides. In this review, we propose the term 'functional plants' as a unifying concept to describe plants used in agroecosystems for specific ecological functions that contribute to pest management and other ecosystem services. We discuss the bottom-up and top-down mechanisms through which they affect biological control via natural enemies. We further explore the traits and other selection criteria that underpin the selection of functional plants, the magnitude of their impacts in terms of pest suppression, and practical considerations that relate to their adoption by endusers. In addition to highlighting their role in supporting pest biological control, we outline the most pressing knowledge gaps, research needs and implementation challenges.

Landscape heterogeneity can enhance biodiversity, but its impacts are rarely disaggregated over time. Thus, off‐season effects on ecosystem service providers, service delivery and underlying (ecological) determinants often remain occluded. We assessed how landscape structure affects predator biodiversity in subtropical rice systems during winter. Furthermore, we investigated the impact of resident predator populations on the adult abundance of the overwintering generation rice stem borer Chilo suppressalis . To study these dynamics, 32,396 insect predators belonging to 52 species (19 families) were systematically surveyed in 19 fallow rice fields over a span of 3 years. Landscape composition and configuration jointly defined overwintering predator diversity, with the former exhibiting the strongest impacts. Rice fields with winter crop cover embedded in complex landscapes harboured the most diverse predator populations. Field size and forest proximity increased abundance and richness of specific natural enemy taxa, that is carabid beetles and hunting spiders. This, in turn, shaped biological control: across sites and years, overwintering pest abundance was negatively correlated with predator richness. Synthesis and applications . Our work demonstrates how off‐season crop management and landscape structure jointly support overwintering predator populations and sustain their biological control potential. Specifically, by enhancing winter ground cover and preserving small fields, local rice growers can enjoy cost‐free pest biological control and avoid crop protection expenditures in the next cropping cycle.

Approximately 3.7 Tg of pesticides are used annually in global crop production to help protect yield, but pesticides pose risks to ecosystem and human health. In this Review, we summarize the pathways causing transboundary environmental and human health impacts of pesticide use in food production, and explore strategies to reduce reliance on pesticides. Once applied to crops, pesticides are transported through surface and groundwater flows, atmospheric dispersion and wildlife migration. Globally, 7.2% of pesticide input leaches below the root zone potentially reaching groundwater, with atmospheric droplets (10–50 µm in size) transported between 250 m and several kilometres from the point of application. International food trade drives pesticide use and, of all food products, fruit and vegetables have the highest embodiment of pesticide impacts, including risk to consumers through dietary intake of residues. Pesticide residues are found on 62% of rice from Pakistan and on 85% of harvested fruits, berries, pulses and leafy vegetables in Western countries. Moreover, residues on ~2–4% of domestic foods in China, New Zealand, the European Union and the USA exceed legal safety limits. Through stringent regulations on pesticide use and enforced compliance with pesticide residue limits, international trade can encourage adoption of low-pesticide cropping strategies and decision support systems that prioritize biodiversity and human health while maintaining yield. Future research should focus on quantifying transboundary pesticide impacts, constraining the environmental fate and transport of pesticides, and increasing environmental monitoring, especially in the Global South. Pesticide use in agriculture helps protect crop yields and support global food security, but environmental contamination and residues on food products pose risks to ecosystems and human health. This Review explores transboundary pesticide impacts of internationally traded foods, finding that fruit and vegetables have the highest embodied impacts.

As core constituents of healthy diets, fruits are often cultivated in temporally stable and structurally complex ecosystems that harbor high levels of biodiversity. However, high-intensity orchard management can lessen the human and environmental health benefits of fruticulture. In the present article, we argue that increased emphasis on biological control could contribute to preventative management of fruit pests, weeds, and diseases, resulting in pesticide phasedown. Carefully calibrated orchard management can increase the provision of ecosystem services by above- and belowground biota, improve soil health, and store atmospheric carbon. When tactically integrated with agroecological measures, behavior-modifying chemicals, or digital tools, biological control helps to conserve pollinator or soil fauna, protect vertebrate communities, and improve vegetation restoration outcomes. Its implementation can, however, give rise to scientific and social challenges that will need to be explored. By resolving the adoption hurdles for biological control at scale, human society could enjoy the myriad benefits of nature-friendly fruit production.

BACKGROUND:Agro-landscape structure affects the population dynamics of crop pests and natural enemies alike. In southern China, rice is typically cultivated under either double cropping rice (DCR) or single cropping rice (SCR) systems. Although each system is preferred to variable extent by pestiferous herbivores or natural enemies, this phenomenon has not been comprehensively studied. Here, we investigated the dynamics of pests and natural enemies across 19 individual SCR fields embedded within landscape mosaics of varying DCR and semi-natural habitat coverage in Jiangxi, China. Within each field, we established plots with and without insecticide applications. RESULTS:Overall, DCR coverage negatively affects in-field abundance of planthopper (Hemiptera: Delphacidae) pests and natural enemies, and predator richness during early season, particularly in insecticide-unsprayed plots. During late season, DCR coverage positively affects abundance of other rice pests in insecticide-unsprayed plots. Compared to DCR, semi-natural habitat coverage has stronger effect on natural enemy populations. Hence, although DCR and semi-natural habitat influence a preventative management of rice pests in SCR systems, their effects are temporally variable and context-dependent. CONCLUSION:Our study underscores a need for more nuanced area-wide management strategies that holistically consider rice growth stages, landscape-level organismal flows, and insecticide-induced disturbances at the field level. © 2025 Society of Chemical Industry.

Diseases caused by vector-borne plant pathogens cause adverse impacts on yield resilience, food security, and farmer livelihoods, which are bound to aggravate under global change. Biological control is routinely discounted as a mitigation strategy for plant diseases, partially due to scarce and inconclusive empirical support. Here, using curated field survey data for 58 persistently or semi-persistently transmitted pathogens, we employ a multi-method approach to assess the role of resident (i.e., naturally occurring) biological control agents in these pathosystems. Our meta-analyses show how in planta pathogen incidence is strongly affected by vector abundance and infectivity. Meanwhile, biological control agent density negatively affects vector abundance and slows vector population build-up. Together, these relationships suggest that biological control lessens pathogen incidence by reducing vector abundance, though a paucity of data impedes direct, empirical demonstration of this effect. In particular, bipartite (mainly vector x pathogen) interactions have only been uncovered under field conditions for less than half of focal pathosystems. More so, just 5 % of studies simultaneously reported pathogen, vector, and biological control agent densities. Our study contests the long-standing dogma that arthropod-vectored pathogens cannot be mitigated through biological control, and accentuates how observational or manipulative field studies are imperative to grasp its full potential.

Roughly 40% of global agri-food production is lost to pests during an era when productivity gains are essential to humanity. Restoring farmland biodiversity for conservation biological control offers potential to secure win-win outcomes for yield and the environment. However, achieving this is hindered by gaps in our un-derstanding of agrobiodiversity, including a lack of data on the occurrence, identity, and interactions of farm-dwelling (plant, animal, microbial) biota. Limited interdisciplinary collaboration and weak policy frameworks exacerbate these is-sues. Comprehensive data capture using standardized metrics, universal proto-cols, farmer-scientist cooperation, and next-generation tools could consolidate the evidence base on which to reform farming practice. This will involve ecologists stepping outside their comfort zones to promote behavioral change and make ecological intensification a reality.

BACKGROUND:For the newly invasive fall armyworm (FAW; Spodoptera frugiperda Smith), large parts of Southeast Asia serve as a year-round breeding ground and a source of spring or summer migrants. So far, the host suitability data for crop- and non-crop species in the China-Myanmar-Lao border is still absent. Here, using life table analyses, we investigated FAW larval feeding and development on locally dominant crop and non-crop species. RESULTS:Among a panel of 17 locally relevant plant species, FAW exhibited the highest survival and fecundity on Zea mays. Meanwhile, field crops such as Manihot esculenta or Musa acuminata and weeds such as Sonchus wightianus, Arachis duranensis, and Sphagneticola trilobata act as potential alternate hosts supported under laboratory conditions. Larval development cannot be completed on Bidens alba and eight other plants, whereas FAW reproduction was not observed on Plantago asiatica and Hevea brasiliensis. On Z. mays, FAW exhibited the highest intrinsic rate of increase (r) and finite rate of increase (λ), the shortest mean generation time (T), and the highest net reproductive rate (R0). FAW attained the highest population growth on Z. mays, followed by M. esculenta, S. wightianus, M. acuminata, and A. duranensis. Larval feeding preferences were consistent with the ranking of host plant adaptability. CONCLUSION:In the border region between Lao PDR, Myanmar and China, local FAW populations readily develop on locally prevalent crop- and non-crop plants including Z. mays, M. esculenta, M. acuminata, S. wightianus, A. duranensis, and S. trilobata. © 2025 Society of Chemical Industry.

Landscape composition affects the performance and pest status of insect herbivores in farmland, though these interactions are mediated by population-level processes and agroecological context. These context-dependent responses contribute to the variability of pest reactions to landscape composition across studies, which arise from a complex set of biotic or abiotic factors that are poorly understood. Here, we provide a systematic literature review on the key determinants of context-specificity and a hierarchical meta-analysis to quantitatively assess the organismal and habitat-related determinants of pest pressure in agricultural landscapes globally. We discussed the potential effects ofpest species traits, population processes, habitat quality, and the spatiotemporal scale of research influence pest responses to landscape composition in landscape-level studies. The hierarchical meta-analysis of 227 effect sizes from 70 studies for 58 herbivorous pests showed that pest success in crop fields is greatly affected by feeding mode, the exact stage of its population dynamic and crop habitat quality. In general, landscapes with more semi-natural habitats tend to enhance the colonization level of specialist pests, while more crops land increase season-long population density of the generalist. Large areas of low-quality crop habitats within the landscape reduce pest abundance and these effects are clearer for season-long population density. By accounting for these parameters, landscape-level processes can be harnessed to strengthen the ecological regulation of pests and thereby advance the ecological intensification of agriculture.