Farmers Response towards the Traps for Controlling Gundhi Bug in Rice Field of Arunachal Pradesh: An Evaluation Study

Abstract

Rice is the world’s most important food crop and a primary source of food for more than half of the world’s population. More than 70% of the people of the Arunachal Pradesh are engaged in agriculture. Some traditional lures used in north east region of India like fermented fish, Puntius spp., fermented paste made up of the same, rotten pineapple, rotten crab, rotten frog and a dry fish, Harpadon nehereus were evaluated for the trapping potential against gundhi bug. Maximum numbers of bugs were trapped with rotten frog (11.7) followed by the fermented paste prepared from Puntius spp. (11.4). The next best lures found were fermented fish, Puntius spp. and dry fish, H. nehereus with 7.6 bugs per trap in a week, for both the lures. The trapping potential of rotten crab showed 4.4 bugs per trap in a week whereas the rotten pineapple with 0.7 bugs per trap in a week was observed as poor as control (0.3 bugs per trap in a week). Therefore, it can be interpreted from the study that the rotten frog and the fermented paste prepared from Puntius spp. had the maximum potential among the lures evaluated. Apart from this, more among the evaluated lures like fermented fish (Puntius spp.), dry fish (H. nehereus) and rotten crab can also be used for the purpose of mass trapping of gundhi bugs depending on their trapping potential and ease of availability.