Integrated Pest Management in Cotton

            Cotton is the most important fiber crop of India and plays a dominant role in agriculture and industrial economy. But the productivity of cotton is declining due to major factor like incidence of different insect pests.

            In the Krishi Vigyan Kendra operational area, Dadh BKII. is the village where summer irrigated cotton is being intensively cultivated since last 30 years. It has been noticed that pest incidence on this crop is increasing resulting in decline in the crop yield even though the farmers are doing heavy expenditure on plant protection.

The major causes of heavy pest infestation are lack of awareness of pest management, indiscriminate use of chemicals, resistance among the pests against the chemical, less use of bio-agents, botanicals and other physical and mechanical methods. Therefore we have intensively implemented the concept of IPM on cotton in Dadh village.with the following IPM treatments

-     Deep ploughing and harrowing the field

-     Use of pest tolerant varieties like NHH-44

-     Seed treatment with crusier or imidachlorprid @ 5gm/kg seed

-     Growing of intercrops like cowpea, green gram, black gram

-     Growing of trap crops like maize and marigold

-     INM through application of recommended doses of NPK

-     Pheromone traps for monitoring of spotted bollworm and

      Helicoverpa and for mass trapping of pink bollworms

-     Hand picking of boll worm caterpillars

-     Cattle urine + dung extract spray

-     Applications of botanical pesticides like NSKE (5%),  Ipomoea(1.5%),

      Chilli and Garlic extract(3%), Tobacco decoction(2%)

-     Use of biopesticides like NPV, BT and Trichogramma

-     Chemical pesticides as the last option

Impact -

With these efforts the concept of IPM has been popularized in cotton crop in Dadh village and the cotton growers are now fully confident about the non-chemical methods of pest management. The adoption of trap crops and pheromone traps is about 80% and the adoption of bio-agents and botanicals is about 70% . The cost of plant protection has been reduced upto 50% with the effective pest management.Some farmers in this village are now thinking about organic cotton cultivation.The technology is now horizontally spreading to the neighboring villages.

Production and Utilization of Botanical Pesticides in Vegetables.

    The crops like vegetables , pulses and oilseeds are regularly being cultivated in Chinchpur village of Sangamner tehsil and these crops are always being heavily prone to attack by different insect pests. For management of these crop pests applications of various chemicals was the only method adopted by the farmes which led to the development of  resistance amongst the insect pests against chemical pesticides. Besides the natural enemies of these pests are also destroyed. Thus the effective pest control was not achieved even by investing high amount on plant protection.

         The KVK identified the common problem among the farming community and a special emphasis was given to provide the low cost and effective pest management technology that will help them to minimize the cost of plant protection as well as to eliminate the pest incidence. The women farmers club of Chinchpur village was selected to implement the technology of production and utilization of different botanical extracts for plant protection.      

     Initially the awareness training programme was conducted regarding the ill-effects of chemical pesticides and the other low cost options available with the farmers to solve the pest problems.This group of women was made aware of the use of available inputs like Ipomoea, chilli, garlic, tobacco, neem seed, custard apple seeds , Embellia and Acorus to prepare the extrats and spraying them on various crops against different pests.

       Similarly they were given the actual training on production of various botanical extracts with certain concentrations and their use for pest management.. Thus  the women farmers in Chinchpur  village were organized into informal group and motivated towards eco-friendly approaches by conducting series of skill  oriented trainings.

    The demonstrations were undertaken regarding the preparations of  various botanical extracts of certain concentrations.Similarly the field demonstrations were also conducted  to test the efficacy of these botanical pesticides against different insect pests.

Impact-

       After the continuous use of different botanical pesticides the group of women farmers in this village has become confident about the effectiveness of the locally available inputs for pest management. They are able to reduce about 70% cost of plant protection along with the satisfactory crop yield. The use of chemicals is reduced upto 75% and no seriuos outbreak of any pest was noticed. Similarly they could increase the net profit by 10-15 %

This group is now preparing the extract of Ipomoea(Besharam)on large scale and providing to the farmers at reasonable cos  This technology is now spreading horizontally to the neighboring villages. Thus it helps to increase the group activity of farmers towards the production of botanical pesticides and the idea is diffusing towards other cultivators.

Organic Farming for Sustainable Farming

The intensive cultivation practices with the use of chemical fertilizers, pesticides and hybrid varieties has not only polluted the soil water and the environment causing their degradation but also affected the soil health  and  human health. The productivity trend is moving towards diminishing returns and insect pest and diseases have developed the resistance. A parallel stream of cultivation practice using organic methods is the solution  to sustain the crop productivity and hence the KVK has made intervention for dissemination of organic farming concept. Various eco-friendly techniques like crop rotation, green manuring, trash mulching, use of composts, animal and plant waste, vermicompost, bio-fertilizers  bio-pesticides and botanical extracts were demonstrated on farmer’s fields to convince them for adopting the concept. The

The demonstrations of organic farming were also organized on different crops with 200 farmers including farmwomen through the project sponsored by CAPART, New Delhi. On job trainings were also organized for the farmers in KVK operational villages for wider adoption of the organic farming concept. KVK has also used this technical intervention among farmers through group approach employing a strong network of 125 farmers clubs.  For increasing this organic movement, KVK has started production of different biofertilizers like Rhizobium, Azotobactor, PSB, Composting culture and biopesticides like Trichoderma, Verticillium, Nomuraea, HaNPV and Paecilomyces which are made available to the farmers at minimum cost. KVK has also used mass media, articles in news papers, AIR programmes, TV programmes and it helped to percolate the concept,  One book on organic farming, and two compound discs on organic farming have also been prepared for circulation among the farming community. These efforts of KVK have resulted in 45 per-cent of adoption of the technology and accordingly 110 vermicompost units, 42 vermiwash units,  5 Vermiculture units have been established at farmers fields.  Organic farming concept has minimized cost of cultivation of theses farmers besides increase in net return, improved soil structure and utilization of natural resources available with them. Now farmers are accepting this concept and doing organic farming not only in cereal, pulses or in fruit crops but also in crops like cotton sugarcane and vegetables also. Some of the beneficiaries have decided to certify their organic farms to have the assured market for their produce In future KVK has also decided to help the farmers for certification of organic farming and also for developing marketing outlets for their organic produce.

Changes in soil properties

After commencement of the project  the components like compost, green manures, vermicompost, bio-fertilizers, different cakes have been continuously adopted for three years in the field. Similarly proper water management and application of organic slurry also helped to change the soil properties. which is given in table ! .:

Table 1 :Changes in soil properties during three year project period

Table-2 Comparitive statement of production and net profits

Figure in parentheses are the net returns