Vance Baird, Michigan State University, and Thibaud Martin, CIRAD, present their work on agricultural nets and floating row covers at the 2013 annual meeting in Nairobi, Kenya.  

Their research shows the effectiveness of floating row covers on pest exclusion in cabbage and tomato crops in Kenya and tomato crops in Benin.  They compare the floating row cover concept to that of mosquito netting for prevention of malaria.  They cover the major pest species of each crop in each country and some of the drawbacks and pests not excluded by the AgroNets.  They also present data on microclimate changes using the nets (conservation of soil moisture, increased humidity and temperature in the cool season, but too hot in the hot/dry season).  The third link in their talk was regarding yield and quality improvement.  They found that they were able to produce more marketable fruit using the nets than without.