The Local View on the Role of Plant Protection in Sustainable Agriculture in India

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Abstract
Indiscriminate use of chemical insecticides has affected humans and their environment and contributed significantly to reduced productivity of crops. With the increasing realization of the importance of sustainable agriculture, the concept of integrated pest management (IPM) for sustainable agriculture has emerged. In the recent past entomologists and the farmers have identified methods of pest management that are ecologically non-disruptive and stable. Concurrently indigenous crop varieties with resistance to pests and diseases have been developed and cultivated. According to the principle of 'organic farming', several non-chemical methods have become popular among the local farmers. Simple cultural practices like increasing the seed rate to compensate for pest damage, adjusting the time of sowing to avoid pest damage, mulching, intercropping, trap cropping and crop rotation have been found to provide adequate protection from pest damage with no additional cost and without harmful effects on the environment. The age-old method of catch and kill is still being practised by farmers, particularly for cotton. Mechanical methods like the bow trap for control of rats and provision of tin sheets around coconut tree trunks to prevent rats damaging the nuts are still being adopted. The use of botanical materials such as the neem products for pest management has been well received almost all over the world. Biological control using the natural enemies of insect pests has become very popular among the farmers in the 1980s. The farmers who clamoured for chemical pesticides in the 1960s and 1970s are now disillusioned with these poisonous eco-destabilizing substances; they want sensible, biologically rational methods of IPM. Pest surveillance and monitoring play an important role in IPM for sustainable agriculture.