Introduction
Plant protection is a vital part of farming. Pesticides and agrochemical products, often known as crop protection chemicals, serve an important role in managing pests and diseases that infect, eat, or damage crops, limiting the quantity and quality of food produced.
Use preventive measures for plant protection, and locally available resources to maintain the plant health. Cultural, Physical & mechanical methods and use of Indigenous Technology Knowledge (ITK) and also sharing the most effective ITKs amongst farmers can also be used.
Cultural Methods for plant protection
- Removal of undesirable plants that might serve as reservoirs for insect pests and disease etc. helps in reducing pest and diseases incidence
- Select clean and certified seeds and treat seeds with fungicide or bio-pesticides before sowing for seed borne disease control
- Rotation of crops with non-host crops helps in reduction of incidence of soil borne diseases
- Mustard can be used as a trap crop in every 15 rows of cabbage and can effectively manage diamondback moths
- Marigold planting with solanaceae, crucifers, legumes, cucurbits can lower the incidence of nematodes. In tomato marigold or cucumber is commonly used as a trap crop for every 15 rows of the main crop to attract tomato fruit borer
Mechanical Methods for plant protection
- Sun drying all the grains effectively reduces stored grain pests such as rice weevil, pulse beetle etc.
- Light Trap serves many purposes like monitoring initial infestation, Seasonal incidence, trapping and killing.
- For protecting cabbage and cauliflower, destroy egg masses of cabbage white butterfly, and red hairy caterpillar
- Make yellow traps, coated with petroleum jelly or castor oil, can be used to prevent aphids in rapeseed mustard, cucumber and other vegetables.
- Traps can be made using ripe mash papaya in a container with a hole to capture both male and female fruit flies for Pumpkin, tomato, mango, watermelon etc.
- Keeping bird perches in the field for allowing birds to sit and feed on insects and their eggs, larvae and pupae stages.
- Methyl Eugenol can be used as fruit fly’s traps
- Banding with grease or polythene effectively controls mango mealy bugs
- Specific pheromones, traps can be used to monitor and mass trapping of target pests.
Indigenous Technical Knowledge (ITKs)
Following Indigenous Technical Knowledge (ITKs) may be used for various plant protection measure
| Sr. No. | Crop | Disease | ITKs |
| 1 | Chilli | Damping off and Die Back | Apply fresh cow dung near the collar region of chilli plant |
| Bunchy top | Dusting of ash | ||
| 2 | Rice | Brown spot Disease of rice | 2-3 kg of fresh papaya leaves smash and sock in 3-4 litre water overnight. After filtration, the solution is mixed with 50-60 litres of water and 250ml soap solution. |
| Sr. No. | Crop | Insect Pests | ITKs |
| 1 | Onion, Okra, Brinjal and Tomato | Beetles, leaf defoliating insects, leaf miner, thrips and aphids | Sprinkling of ash in and around the vegetable crops |
| 2 | Various crops | Soil insect pest | Soil application of Dried seeds and leaves of Neem or Melia azedarach (Local name: Seizarak) |
| 3 | Vegetable crops | Aphids and Jassids | Extract of green chilli and garlic as foliar spray |
| Sr. No. | Crops | Stored Grain Pests | ITKs |
| 1 | Rice | Rice weevil, rice moth etc | Grain stored with neem leaves reduced the incest pest damage |
| 2 | Green gram and other pulses | Various stored grain insect pests | Treating the seeds thoroughly with mustard oil |
| 3 | Green Gram | Various stored grain insect pests | Seeds treated 1% neem leaf powder prior to storage |