Port Blair, Mar 26: Pest monitoring and surveillance with main emphasis to forewarn the farmers on the potential epidemics of pest is a significant activity of Directorate of Plant Protection, Quarantine & Storage(DPPQS), Faridabad, Union M/o Agri & Farmers Welfare. As a part of this process, a pest survey was conducted by Central Integrated Pest Management Centre (CIPMC), Port Blair to access the damage and spread of Coconut slug caterpillar in Nimbutala area in collaboration with Zonal Agri Office, Rangat.
A team composed of Dr. Shiva Kumar H.D., Assistant Plant Protection Officer of CIPMC along with Mrs. S.C. Rekha, Asst. Director (Agri.), Mr. Santhosh Kumar, AFA, Mr. Azmat Qadir, SCFA visited the farmers’ fields at Nimbutala, Amkunj and surrounding areas. Team observed that the Coconut orchards were infested with Slug caterpillars and now it is spreading to adjoining Arecanut Palms and other forest trees. The experts advocated Integrated Pest Management(IPM) through balanced nutrition along with MOP and application of Neem Cake. They also suggested spraying Neem Seed Kernel Extract(NSKE) 5%, Neem Oil 3 %, use of Light traps and Petromax light from 7:00pm-3:00am. Installation of lights traps is highly profitable as it is difficult to adopt chemical control measures for the management of this pest due to the residual toxicity and limitations of large scale adoption of pesticidal recommendations and more number of female moths were attracted to the light traps. They stressed on the need to provide supplemental irrigation in the absence of rain.
Farmers of Nimbu Tala and Amkunj: Prabas Biswas, Ajit Kr Bachar, Biswanath Mondal, Harshith Mondal, Apoorva Mondal and Staff of Agri Dept: Sourav Halder, Nageshwar Rao were present in the interaction. Mrs. S.C. Rekha, Asst. Director (Agri.), Rangat Zone assured all possible measures to contain the spread of the slug caterpillar.
