Silicon as a natural plant guard against insect pests

Agricultural pest management involves a thorough understanding of biology and ecology of insects and their interaction with plant constituents. Exogenous silicon (Si) application has been shown to boost plant tolerance to herbivory while also increasing output. The silicon application contributes to reduced oviposition, feeding, digestibility, fitness of insects, and increased activity of biological control agents due to various physical, chemical, and molecular mechanisms. Factors responsible for inducing resistance following Si application are discussed in this paper. Further Si is compatible with other amendments applied to crops. Si application can be combined with other crop production practices for enhanced yield in an ecofriendly manner with less or no dependency on synthetic insecticides. The future areas of research on Si-mediated herbivory resistance in crop plants are also discussed.