Eco-friendly traps helping farmers detecting harmful insects

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RAJSHAHI, March 19, 2020 (BSS) – Yellow-trap, environmentally sound method
for detecting harmful insects especially shoot and fruit borer, cut worm and
fruit borer, are helping the farmers in different areas of the region during
the current Rabi season.

This eco-friendly ‘yellow-trap’ method as an alternative to pesticides
control, getting popular among the farmers at different villages as they are
attaining significant success in pest management on various vegetable farming
including potato, tomato and brinjal.

Abul Kashem, a farmer of Nandanhat village under Mohanpur Upazila, said
many of the farmers have started getting benefits through using the trap in
the vegetable farming instead of applying chemical pesticides.

He said shoot and fruit borer is the main enemy to the farming of brinjal
while cutworm and some aphids to potato and fruit borer to tomato and the
yellow trap has become an effective tool to control the harmful pests.

Kashem said the farmers set the adhesive trap at farming field and the
insects fall prey to the trap and die promptly.

If existence of harmful insects is found, experts advise the farmers to
adopt effective pest control method.

Sub Assistant Agriculture Officer Mujibur Rahman said using of yellow trap
has a pivotal role towards producing safe vegetables like brinjal, potato and
tomato side by side with marking the farmers profitable.

This method has reduced indiscriminate use of pesticides by 50 percent and
the farmers are also learning to identify useful insects in the farming
fields.

He said the grassroots level farmers are being imparted training to this
end.

Monjur-E-Mawla, Additional Deputy Director of the Department of Agriculture
Extension (DAE), said farmers did not have to use any pesticide so far this
year because they did not detect any harmful insects in vegetable farming
fields through the yellow-trap method.

He they have introduced the programme throughout the region to detect the
harmful insects in the winter vegetable farming fields and use insecticides
as per the experts prescription to save the cash crops.

The low-cost method is also helpful for maintaining ecological balance in
the fields. He also said the farmers are extremely enthusiastic in using the
method because they are reaping benefits from it.

Normally farmers apply costly insecticides in the fields indiscriminately,
killing all insects including the useful insects, and causing a definite
environmental degradation. But when the harmful insects are detected through
the yellow-trap method, they can save money by applying a cheaper insecticide
to kill that particular pest as per the experts’ suggestion, said the DAE
official.

In the current season, vegetable farming has exceeded the target of
producing around 18.72 lakh tonnes from 86,708 hectares of land set by the
DAE in all eight districts of Rajshahi division. But, the farmers have
brought 87,612 hectares of land under farming of varieties of vegetables
creates scopes of additional production.

Deb Dulal Dhali, Additional Director of DAE, said yellow-trap programme has
been promoted among the farmers in the region including its vast Barind tract
during the last couple of years to manage pests effectively with low cost.