Forewarning systems developed for pests of important crops in validation of IPM technologies for selected crops

Abstract

India is the second largest producer of fruits in the world sharing about 10% of fruit market out of a total production of 370 million tonnes in the world. In spite of large scale production of fruits, it has not been possible to meet the requirement of ever growing population. Increase in India's fresh produce has also not made any major dent in the international trade so far except for few fruits. Of the several fruit crops, 'mango' known as 'king of fruits' is one of the most delicious and important fruits and occupies a place of pride amongst all the fruits grown in the country. It covers about 35 per cent of area and accounts for 22 per cent of the total production of fruits in the country, which is highest in the world with India's global share of about 54 per cent. Among various states, Uttar Pradesh is the largest producer of mango (37.5%) (Table 1) followed by Andhra Pradesh (19.9%) and Bihar (14.7%) with a productivity of 9, 12.5 and 12 tonnes per hectare, respectively. Mango has adapted very well to diverse agro-climatic conditions prevailing in India. The country can boast of having the largest available germplasm wealth of mangoes with about 1000cultivars. However, despite the country having a comparative advantage over other mango producing countries in terms of total production, the productivity continues to be low. Thus, even among various states, there is a wide gap in productivity which is rather low in Uttar Pradesh. One of the major constraints for low productivity in mango is high incidence of insect pests and diseases. More than 200 insect species and 70 diseases have been reported to affect the mango crop, resulting in a total yield loss of about 20-60 per cent. The management strategy for these insect pests and diseases remains largely confined to chemical pesticides. Only during bloom stage itself farmers give 3-5 sprays with powerful tractor mounted sprayers which destroy the tender inflorescence as well as pollinators leading to wide-spread problem of physiological disorders and ultimately affecting the yield. Prevailing pest control schedules are not conducive for effective pest management, ecosystem and quality production apart from the other problems of pest resistance and resurgence. Strategy of the reliance on chemicals has to be given up in the present era of WTO wherein the pesticide residues in fruits are totally discouraged. Realizing the need to have an ecofriendly approach to tackle the insect pest and disease problems in mango dominated region of UP, a project on IPM was started under NATP Mission Mode, in five villagesin Malihabad belt of UP in a participatory approach with the main aim of reducing dependence on chemical pesticides and at the same time improving the ecosystem as a whole, obtain high quality produce to attain export competitiveness in global market and for improving the socio- economic status of small and marginal farmers.