Home ›› 24 Nov 2021 ›› Nation
Experts at a farmers' field day have stressed on adopting organic pesticide based technologies for insect pests and disease management in betel leaf farming to enable farmers in getting more profits.
They opined this at the event on insect pests and disease management through organic pesticide based technology held at village Alodatpur in Gangachara upazila on Monday afternoon.
Regional Agricultural Research Station (RARS) of Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute (BARI) at Burirhat in Rangpur organised the event participated by local betel leaf farmers.
Additional Secretary (Research) of the Ministry of Agriculture Kamala Ranjan Das attended the occasion as the chief guest.
With Chief Scientific Officer of BARI at RARS Agriculturist Dr Ashish Kumar Saha in the chair, Deputy Director of the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) for Rangpur Md. Obaidur Rahman Mandal was present in the event as special guest.
Principal Scientific Officers of RARS at Burirhat Agriculturist Dr Md Obaidul Haque and Agriculturist Md. Anwar Zahid and Additional Deputy Director of the DAE for Rangpur Ashok Roy were present.
Senior Scientific Officer of RARS at Burirhat Agriculturist Dr Md Harun- Ar-Rashid presented organic pesticide based technologies for insect pests and disease management in betel leaf cultivation.
He said farmers are cultivating betel leaf on 498.72 hectares of land in 6,449 betel leaf 'Baraz' and producing 3968.47 metric tonnes of betel leaf annually in all five districts of Rangpur agriculture region.
As a result of long-term cultivation of betel leaf on the same land, outbreak of various types of betel insects and diseases are being noticed in the region.
Farmers use a lot of pesticides and fungicides to control pests and diseases and they are failing to manage the menace as the pests and diseases have become tolerant to pesticides and fungicides.
"It is possible to successfully control the black flies, whiteflies, leaf-eating insects and mites by using the organic pesticides Ontario, Fizimite and Spinosade in phases in growing betel leaf plants," he said
It is also possible to successfully control root rot, leaf and leaf rot and anthracnose diseases by applying Dynamic and Lycomax. Farer Sachin Roy on his exhibition plot said if organic pesticides were readily available in local markets, farmers would be able to use organic pesticides easily.
"If betel leaf produced using organic pesticide technology could be exported abroad, betel leaf growers would get fair prices and become motivated to use organic pesticide technology," he said.
Farmers Jyoti Krishna Roy and Rakhal Chandra Roy requested for imparting training to more farmers on betel leaf production using organic pesticide technology.
