In the light of increased awareness on unwanted effects of conventional insecticides and concern for ecofriendly plant protection, avermectins have emerged as new group of insecticides.
Sultan Ahmed Ismail, founder director of Ecoscience Research Foundation, explaining the importance of different plants to school students at the Organic Corner of the Tamil Nadu Science and Technology Centre on Wednesday.
CHENNAI: With worms and special manure and pest control plants, no chemicals are needed in a garden.
The majority of farmers in sub-Saharan Africa are small scale entrepreneurs whose farm operations are performed with low input agricultural technologies. Many of these technologies are supported with low input farm power and simple machines. Essentially, low input agricultural technologies are embodied in the refined indigenous knowledge systems.
An experiment was carried out at Maud Tea Estate, Chabua, Assam following the ancient techniques of controlling pests based on information given in Surapala's Vrikshayurveda and Chakrapani Mishra's Vishvavallabha.
Deckiajuli Tea Estate in Assam, India has been grappling with the issue of what should be considered as a ideal crop management system for tea plantation. The planters felt that the use of chemicals was not giving satisfactory results and they decided to grow tea organically. To achieve these objectives, the ancient classics published by the Asian Agri-History Foundation (AAHF), Secunderabad, India were used for obtaining useful and practical information.
Tea (Camellia sinensis) is an important commercial crop extensively cultivated in Assam. Being grown as a monocrop, many insect and mite pests are prevalent in the tea plantations causing considerable crop loss. Use of traditional plant protection measures for pest management in tea has not been considered feasible considering the vastness of the tea plantation. However, Ayangarya (2006) reported that many tea pests could be controlled successfully by adopting such traditional practices based on Vrikshayurveda.
The Rythu Sadassu in Paloncha revenue division succeeded in achieving its goal for sustainable farming and expanding bio-agriculture. Farmers from 18 mandals including Aswapuram, Burgumpahad, Manuguru, Pinapaka, Kukkunur, Velie-rpad and Paloncha attended the meeting. The farmers decided to start bio-farming in 30,000 acre in the 18 mandals and they would not use pesticides and inorganic fertilisers.
Biological control is preferred Most of the important diseases of grapes such as anthracnose downy mildew and powdery mildew are caused by fungi. The incidence of the diseases depends not only on the presence of pathogens but also on vineyard management practices and environmental factors such as temperature, humidity and rainfall.
A ray of hope is dawning in a few hundred villages of Washim and Akola districts, thanks to a project called the Integrated Sustainable Agricultural Programme (INSAP) being implemented by Yuva-Rural (Youth for Unity and Voluntary Action) with the help of Swiss-Aid India.
