English coversation about agriculture - by scientist

This is  excerpt of an interview with an agricultural scientist
about the importance of tending crops:

Q: What are weeds?

A: Weeds are the plants out of place. They compete with the main
crop for nutrients, sunlight and water. The weed may be narrow
leaf weed, broad leaf weed and sedges which may be annual,
biennial or perennial depending upon its life cycle.

Q: What are insects?

A: Insects are the small animals generally with 3 segmented body
parts and 6 or more legs. Insects cause damage by chewing,
sucking or piercing pliant parts,


Q: What are nematodes?
A: Nematodes are tiny parasitic worms which are microscopic in
nature and invisible to the naked eye. All species of plant parasitic
nematode feed on the plant fluid through needle-like oral stylet.
They cause damage in the plant root system which sometime
appears as galls or swollen points on the root system.The injured
part may serve as the entry point for several disease causing
pathogen.



Q: What are diseases?
A: Diseases are caused by the organisms out of place. It is the
malfunctioning of plant cells and tissues that result from continuous
irritation by a pathogenic agent or environmental factor and leads
to development of symptoms. Diseases may be caused by many
different types of plant pathogens.


Q: How are the weeds, insects, nematodes and diseases related to
weather?
A: In a suitable weather condition these can thrive well and cause
havoc on the crop cultivation and could be the major cause for
severe yield loss. So, if the weather conditions in which they
develop is known to us, we can apply control measures and thus
maximise our yield and profit.


Q: What is the importance of weather in agriculture?
A: Weather is one of the most important factors for cultivation of
crop apart from seed and soil. Weather plays a vital role in
deciding the time of sowing of crop, its harvesting and various
other farming operations in between.


Q: Why do we need weather data on regular basis?
A: Farmers can judge the application of irrigation, fertilisers and
pesticides from the weather data. Scientists particularly of the
agricultural field, need the weather data on regular basis for their
research work.