Implementation and promotion of an IPM strategy for control of eggplant fruit and shoot borer in South Asia.
Abstract
This is the Final Technical Report of a DFID-funded Project R7465 (D): Implementation and Promotion of an Integrated Pest Management Strategy for the Control of Eggplant Fruit and Shoot Borer (Leucinodes orbonalis) in Indo- Gangetic Plains of South Asia.
A three-year research and development project, funded by the Department for International Development (DFID) of the United Kingdom, was launched in April 2000 to develop a sustainable integrated pest management (IPM) strategy that is simple, economical, and effective in reducing EFSB damage with minimal use of chemical pesticides. Through intensive laboratory and field research in Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka, Taiwan and the United Kingdom, an IPM strategy was developed that involved 1) field sanitation to prevent carryover of EFSB from the previous season; 2) prompt excising and disposal of EFSB-damaged shoots, with larvae inside, throughout the season; 3) installation of traps baited with EFSB sex pheromone to attract and kill adult males; and 4) withholding of insecticide use for as long as possible to allow native natural enemies of EFSB to proliferate and help control the pest. Integration of all four approaches is essential for successful control of EFSB.
This strategy, developed during the first two years of the initial three-year phase of the project, was tested during the third year in limited pilot project studies on farmers' fields in Jessore District of Bangladesh, Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh States of India, and Central Province of Sri Lanka. Except in Sri Lanka, the pilot projects were successful in reducing pest damage below economically tolerable levels. Such success prompted three small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in India to commercialize the sex pheromone for sale at competitive prices. Socio-economic studies in Bangladesh showed that the IPM strategy reduced production costs by 34% compared to the traditional farmer practice of calendar-based pesticide application. The benefit-cost ratio with IPM was 5.3, as against 1.7 for the traditional practice. With such a precipitous drop in pesticide use, the IPM strategy, if adopted community-wide, is likely to be sustainable for decades.
Based on the success of this project, DFID funded a two-year extension of the project to expand implementation and promotion of IPM in Bangladesh and India. The major activities involved expanding areas under pilot projects on farmers' fields, followed by promotion of IPM by organization of farmers' field days, dialogs between farmers and researchers, training demonstrations to farmers in the use of sex pheromone, and use of multimedia to distribute information to wider audiences of various sectors of the population. The promotion also included production and distribution of informative brochures, leaflets, posters and news releases, telecasting of a specially prepared film documentary, and interviews over radio and television to drive home the message of IPM, especially to farmers and consumers. A socio-economic study of farmers' eggplant production and protection practices and an assessment of the impact of project activities in target and nontarget areas were also carried out toward the end of the project. This bulletin summarizes activities undertaken and results obtained at four regions in Bangladesh and six states in India during the second phase of the project.
Citation
Technical Bulletin No. 36. AVRDC publication number 06-672. AVRDC – The World Vegetable Center, Shanhua, Taiwan. ISBN 92-9058-146-8, 88 pp.
Links