Agricultural
production in India increased dramatically during the last five decades,
leading to an era of food self-sufficiency. The remarkable growth was achieved
through increasing use of high yielding seeds, chemical fertilizers, pesticides
and irrigation water, as well as by the expansion of cropped area.
Nevertheless, the growth in agricultural production needs to be sustained to
meet the food demand of ever increasing population.
Written by Dibyajyoti Nag
Eco Friendly Approach of Insect Management with
Easily Available Materials
Agricultural production in India increased
dramatically during the last five decades, leading to an era of food
self-sufficiency. The remarkable growth was achieved through increasing use of
high yielding seeds, chemical fertilizers, pesticides and irrigation water, as
well as by the expansion of cropped area. Nevertheless, the growth in
agricultural production needs to be sustained to meet the food demand of ever
increasing population. It was estimated that, over the next three decades,
production of food grains in India has to increase at least 2 million tonnes a
year to meet the food demand of the growing population (Paroda and Kumar,
2000). Since the prospects for bringing additional land under cultivation are
limited, growth in agricultural production has to come from productivity
increases.
Insect pests, diseases and weeds inflict
enormous losses to the potential agricultural production. Anecdotal evidences
also indicate rise in the losses, despite increasing use of chemical
pesticides. Pesticide use in India increased from a mere 15 g/ha of gross
cropped in 1955-56 to 90 g/ha in 1965-66. Introduction of green revolution
technologies in mid-1960s gave a fillip to pesticide use, and in 1975-76,
it
had increased to 266 g/ha, and reached a peak of 404 g/ha in 1990-91 (Birthal,
2003), During 1990s, taxes were raised on pesticides and phasing out of
subsidies was initiated resulting, pesticide use has started declining
since 1990-91, reaching 265g/ha in 1998-99, without much affecting the
agricultural productivity (Birthal, 2003). At the same time, there is a
rising public concern about the potential adverse effects of chemical pesticides
on the human health, environment and biodiversity, hence organic farming become
a good choice. During the last decade organic agriculture has progressed as a dynamic alternate
farming system. This has been necessitated by resource degradation because of
achieving high yields in various crops to meet the increasing demand of food by
the burgeoning population.This has resulted degradation of soil structure,
imbalance in micro-organisms and organic matter
of the soil and brought in health and environmental problems. Insects are one
of the main factors for causing a huge loss in in yield either by harm directly
to the plant or by spreading diseases. Insects are highly mobile and well
adapted to farm production systems and pest control tactics. So, insect management
presents a challenge to organic farmers. As it is an eco-friendly approach, so
the fundamental concept is managing insects rather than eliminating them. So it
is very important to know about the biological information, Ecological
information means, How the insect interacts with the environment and other
species and Behavioral information means,
how the insect goes about collecting the necessities of life can be manipulated
to protect crops.
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| www.yardcare.com |
It is well known that the size, behaviour,
season of attack of pests varies one to another. Pest control in organically is
a broad issue and divided into some broad categories. This includes a huge
number of methods or strategies. Here different methods discussed. There is no
need to adopt all of these to control pest attack. One should adopt or practice
one or more than one strategies on the basis of his/ her knowledge, time,
resource and the behaviour the probable pest.
A) Cultural
practices- This includes different
types of strategies, some of them are …
Selection
of crop cultivar- It is
advisable to use disease-resistant and insect resistant varieties. In every
cases GMO (Genetically modified organism) or transgenic crops are avoided as
they are not allowed in organic farming. It is better to cultivate traditional
varieties because they are resistant to disease and insect attack. Change in
cultivar reduces the number of pest and beneficial insect as well.
Crop
rotation- It is an effective
way to control the less mobile insects. Growing same crop on same piece of land
increases the population of some particular insects as that act as host to
those insects. Population of these insects become suppressed as soon as the
cropping pattern is changed. For
example, to reduce insecticide applications for CPB by 50 percent, potatoes
have to be moved 1/4- to 1/2-mile away from previous potato crops (Weisz et al.
1994). To be most effective, rotations between susceptible crops should be
three to seven years. (Linker et al.
2009).
Operational
date- Basically, every crop has a particular time
to grow and the insect damaging that crop also found at the same time. Planting
date is dependent on market, labour availability, weather etc. On the other hand, harvesting date is dependent on maturity
and market demand. The shorter time a crop is in field, the lesser chance to be
damaged by insects. So if we change the operational dates on the basis of our
need, then the pest attack may be escaped. For example, curcurbits may have
fewer virus problems with early harvest.
Seed
treatment- Seed treatment with
cow urine or beeja sanjivani solution prevents seedborne diseases. Seeds should
be kept in these solution for 20 minutes before sowing. Socking 13kg corn seeds
in enough water along with chopped 1kg Gliricidia bark for 12-14 hours, reduces
seedborne pathogens on corn (Stoll, G. 2000).
Plant
population- Change in plant
density affect the insect pest population. This can be done by manipulating the
spacing, seed rate.
Nutrition
and water management-
Nutrients leads to growth of plant, which is desirable, but at the same time
this must be kept in mind that overly lush plants attracts more insects. Though
there is no provision of application of synthetic fertilizers, even then proper
amount should be given, at the same time pH also maintained. Insect populations
can decrease if overhead sprinklers knock insects off plants or raise
microenvironment humidity enough to encourage insect disease caused by bacteria
or fungi. Usually plants with lush growth or plants stressed by drought can be
more attractive to insect pests or less tolerant to their feeding.
Tillage- Tillage not only destroys the insects
overwintering in the soil as eggs, pupae, or adults directly as well as the
ecological linkages, hence the population. Though the degree of pest population
shifts between a tilled and reduced-tillage system cannot be truly predicted,
but cutworm and slug problems can be reduced where tillage is frequent.
Sanitation- Good farm sanitation helps to prevent introductions
of pest insects from outside sources. Spider mites, whiteflies etc are not very mobile but can infest
an uninfested area if that move to there by equipment or by human. So, if is
required to purchase transplants from outside, that should be purchased from
any reputed institution and a screening should be done before use.
Deep
summer ploughing- Just
one month in advance deep ploughing is done i.e. in the month of May for kharif
crops. This helps to kill weeds, hibernating insects and disease-causing
organisms by exposing them to the summer heat.
This also encourages the natural enemies like birds, resulting reduce in
numbers of insects.
Soil solarisation- This method includes, sterilization of soil
by using the solar energy. The area to be solarized should be level and free of
debris and large clods. The soil should be watered if the soil is dry. The soil
should not be saturated but have the crumbly damp look that the soil would have
at planting. Place clear plastic over the soil surface and bury the edges in a
foot deep trench. The plastic should be left in place for 4-6 weeks.
Solarisation is most effective when done in summer.
 |
| Bagging of fruits (Photo: Atanu Deb) |
Bagging fruits- It is being often found that huge loss occur in
fruits due to mechanical injury and fruit flies. In such cases, ‘Bagging’ is an
effective strategy to protect these.Bag provides physical protection from
mechanical injuries (scars and scratches) and prevents female flies' laying
activities, latex burns, and fungal spots on the fruits. Although
this method is laborious, cheaper, safer, easier, and gives one reliable
estimate of projected harvest.
Installation of Bird perches- Predatory birds are natural enemies to insect
pests of cotton, peanuts, and cowpeas. Usually, perches are resting places for
predatory birds to rest and to look for preys. To make bird perches, use bamboo
or wooden poles or tree branches. Erect either of these at regular intervals in
the field.
B) Physical
methods- These method deals
with the mechanical approaches for controlling insect pests.
Handpicking- It is an excellent method of controlling
pests especially when only a few plants are infested. This means actually
closely monitoring and removing insects by hand. It is the easiest and direct
way to kill the visible and slowly moving pests. Pests at different stages like
Adults, larvae, eggs can be handpicked and destroyed as soon as found.
Light trap - It is very way to control insects in field. One just
has to keep a lamp or the bulb on bamboo/wooden frame,
five meters from the ground.
A shallow basin with soapy water or the jute sack
is placed underneath the light. Light
trap is a device used at night in the field to collect moths and other flying
insects such as Armyworm, Bugs, Cutworm, Flies, Gnats, Heliotis/Helicoverpa Leafhoppers,
Planthoppers, Stem borers.
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| Light Trap |
Use of Sticky substances- Molasses, saw dusts, or crushed eggshells
are place around the base of each plant. As soon as, cutworm emerges to feed,
it will come in contact with the trap, get stuck, harden, and die.
Yellow
pan traps- Fill half the
yellow pan or basin with soapy water. Place the pan close to the plant but
expose enough that moth can see it. Trapped moths sink and drown because soap
breaks the surface tension of the water.
Pheromone trap- Pheromone is a kind of chemical signal emit
by a particular type of insect to find out others of same species. Insect use
other chemical messages, helps to locate food, insect of that species.
Artificially this chemical is used in a trap to monitor the pest population,
disrupt the mating, capture a large no of male pests etc. In field, insect use this chemical signal to find out the
opposites.
With the use of the pheromone either by confusing the males for
mating or by mass capture of adult male insects, the insect population can be
reduced. So, during purchase, pheromone of target insect, along with date must
be considered. Pests such as Cabbage looper, Cotton bollworm, Cotton boll weevil, Corn earworm, Diamondback moth, Fruitfly, Hornworm may be controlled by using this trap. But if this is not
properly used, this may attract other insect from surroundings.
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| Pheromone Trap installation (Photo: D. Nag) |
Pruning- Pruning is the selective removal of specific plant
parts. Removal of diseased, damaged, and/or dead plant parts, leaves with egg
masses etc helps to reduce pest infeastation.
Use
of biological agents for insect control- Insects have many types of natural enemies. As with other organisms,
insects can become infected with disease-causing organisms called pathogens. Insect control by these
strategy relies on predation, parasitism, herbivory, or other natural mechanisms,
but typically
also involves an active human management role. Some species of Insect-Parastic Nematodes, parasitic fungi, parasitic
bacteria and parasitic virus are extreamly harmful to pest insects. Along with
this some insect predators like Lady Beetles, Green Lacewings, Syrphid
Flies, Ground Beetle,s Predatory Mites, spiders, Tachinid Flies destroy insect
population upto a great extent. These
are already adapted to the habitat and to the target pest, and their conservation can be
simple and cost-effective.  |
| Spider: Natural enemy of many pests |
To conserve them naturally, this must be
considered that, they are getting host plants for their survive. Some
strategies should be taken such as intercropping instead of mono cropping,
growing cover crop, arranging the crops for the benefit of beneficial insects
for conserving beneficial insects.
C) Botanical
pesticides- There are different
plants used to prepare botanical pesticides. Some places plant parts are used
directly and in some cases their extract are used.Very few of them are
discussed below-
Aloe, vitex extract- This solution is
made by mixing 5kg vitex leave extract (boil leaves in water for 30 minutes)
and 2litre of aloe juice, 50 litre of water and little amount of sticker. This
solution is sufficient to spray in 0.4 ha. This protect crop from Armyworm, Hairy leaf-caterpillar, Rice leaf
roller, Rice stem borer and Semi-looper.
 |
| Mixed leaf extract |
Mixed
leaf extract- Plants
such as Neem, Pongamia, Ipomia, lemon grass, mint etc. (which do not attract
cattle) are used to prepare this. Boil
all these leaves in its double amount of water for 30 minutes. Spray 10% of
this solution by adding required amount of water to prevent pest and disease infestation.
Virus
Damanam- Chilli, garlic, cow
dung, cow urine and neem leaf extract is mixed at the ratio of 1:1:5:5:5. Add
50 times of water with this solution. This prevents spread of virus infested
place to uninfested place.
Bulb
crops- 1 kg chopped onion
or garlic is boiled in 1 litre of water. After 24 hour 1 litre this solution is
diluted with 10 litre of water and little amount of sticker and sprayed in
field to control Ants, Scales, Spider mites, Thrips. Bacterial and fungal disease are checked by
these.
Turmeric- A solution is prepared by 20 grams of
shredded turmeric rhizome that is socked in 200 ml cow's urine and diluted with
3 litre of water. Spray of this solution on infected plants helps to protect
crop from Aphids, Armyworm, Cotton semi-looper, Green leafhopper, Mites, Rice
leaf roller and Rice stem borer.
Neem
extract- Neem is epellent,
insecticidal, antibacterial, antifungal, antifeedant, oviposition and growth
inhibiting, and crop and grain protectant (Prakash; Rao, 1997). It is used in
various ways like Neem leaf extract,
Neem Seed Carnal Extract (NSKE) , Neem oil. Even Neem cakes also very good manure and good
insectide.
Tobacco
decoction- Foliar application
of tobacco decoction 10% and fresh cow urine, found great to control different
pests.
D) Some
other materials-
Animal
manure- It has antiseptic
and mild anti-fungal properties. Healthy animals and those that are feed solely
with grasses and or fodders are said to be a good source of manure for disease
control. 40 kg of chicken manure and 25 kg of neem cake are mixed and then top
dress to rice field 25-30 days after transplanting should be done to reduce
rice diseases (Vijayalakshmi, et.al, 1998).
Dried cow dung mix with 15 lit of water helps to supress the bacterial
infeastation (Sridhar, et. al, 2002).
Animal
urine- This has antiseptic
and mild anti-fungal properties. Healthy animals and those that are feed solely
with grasses and or fodders are said to be a good source of urine for disease
control. Sridhar, et. al.(2002) reported
a solution made up of 50 ml of cow's urine and 500 ml of water controls plant
diseases caused by virus, fungus, and bacterium if it is applied by water or
sprinkler on plants early in the morning.
Milk- Milk diluted in water is used as fungicide
by some gardeners because of its active substances and microorganisms that
prevent pathogen-causing-disease to multiply. Sour milk and goat's milk are
found to encourage the growth of stronger protective coatings on crucifers.
Milk and water should be mixed (ratio is 1 part milk to 9 parts water). Spray
at weekly interval as a preventive control measure to control Red spider mites,
Mildew, Mosaic virus, Blights and other fungal diseases (Stoll, G. 2000).
Ash- Ash is the residue of burned plant parts
like; bark, wood, sawdust, leaves, woody debris, pulp, husk, hulls, fronds, and
other plant debris. Ash has been used for soil liming (Risse, 2002) and for
traditional pest control to some crawling pests (HDRA, 2000; Stoll, 2000). Foliar application of wood ash helps to check
insect problems in climbers.
1.
Mix 2 kg
of grinded chilli ash with 50 g of powdered pepper are mixed. Apply a pinch of
pepper powder and ash mixture to the funnel of the plant when pinholes on the
corn leaves are found. This formulation is good enough for a 0.4 ha area to
control Corn stalk borer
2.
Place
ash. A teacup full of ash is placed around the base of a 5 young bean plants is
good enough for 5 plants to control Ants (Stoll, G. 2000).
3.
Lay a
thick layer of plant ash around the plants, will prevent flies and moths of
Cutworm and fly maggot to lay their eggs near the stems.
REFERENCES-
Birthal,
P.S. (2003). Economic potential of biological substitutes for agrochemicals.
NCAP Policy Paper 18. National Centre for Agricultural Economics and Policy
Research, New Delhi.
HDRA. (2000): Chilipepper, Capsicum
frutescens . Natural Pesticides No. TNP1. Henry Doubleday Research
Association, UK.
http://www.oisat.org/control_methods.html
Linker, H. M. ; Orr, D. B. and Barbercheck,
M. E. (2009): The Organic Production publication
series. Center for Environmental Farming Systems, Carolina
Paroda,
R.S. and P. Kumar. (2000). Food
production and demand situations in South Asia. Agricultural Economics
Research Review 13(4): 1-25.
Prakash, A.; Rao, J. (1997): Botanical
pesticides in agriculture. CRC Press. USA.
Sridhar,
S.; Arumugasamy, S.; Saraswathy, H.; Vijayalakshmi, K. (2002): Organic
vegetable gardening. Center for Indian Knowledge Systems. Chennai.
Sridhar, S.; Arumugasamy, S.; Saraswathy, H.;
Vijayalakshmi, K. (2002): Organic vegetable gardening. Center for Indian
Knowledge Systems. Chennai.
Stoll, G. (2000): Natural Crop Protection
in the Tropics Margraf Verlag. Weikersheim
Vijayalakshmi,
K.; Sridhar, S.; Damodharan, E. (1998): Rice: Non-chemical pest control.
CIKS.
**********
Dibyajyoti Nag. Research Scholar, RKMVU, F/C for IRTDM, Ranchi
E mail: dibyajyoti_nag@rediffmail.com
Dibyajyoti Nag. Research Scholar, RKMVU, F/C for IRTDM, Ranchi
E mail: dibyajyoti_nag@rediffmail.com
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