A field day was organized in the field of Sh. Cheluvaraju at Seethekempanahalli village, Bengaluru North District, Karnataka on 09.12.2020. The main aim of the field day was to create awareness about the innovative light cum suction trap based IPM for tomato moth, Tuta absoluta which is causing significant economic loss in tomato. The programme started with the welcome of the guests by Mr.Atheequlla G.A., Scientist.
Dr M Krishna Reddy, principal scientist and Head, Division of Crop Protection briefed about the importance of Tuta insect pest and how it attained a status of major pest.
Later, Dr. V Sridhar, Principal Scientist & innovator of the technology briefed about its attributes especially suction system, timer adopted in the trap and other holistic integrated pest management practices in tomato crop for successful management of Tuta.
Farmer, Mr Cheluvaraju shared his experience about adoption of this technology. He narrated that he was hesitating at the beginning to adopt the light trap, as he was thinking that this would rather attract pests from other areas and may incur more damage. But after a thorough discussion with the experts from crop protection division and the innovators of the technology, he was convinced to adopt it in his field. He said, earlier Tuta damage is to range from 20- 45 % in his field, which used to cause lots of yield and income loss. But after adoption of this innovative trap followed by regular IPM practices his loss due to Tuta pest is recorded less than 1 percent till 9th crop picking. He was very happy about its performance and also advocated the fellow farmers who attended the programme to adopt it.
Dr M.R. Dinesh, Director, ICAR-IIHR, Hesaraghatta who was the chief guest of the programme appreciated this innovative suction based light trap and congratulated Sh. Cheluvaraju, a progressive farmer who has adopted it. He was impressed by the performance of the this trap along with the other IPM practices. He addressed the farmers to adopt technologies like these and be the ambassadors for further disseminating this technology.
Followed by it, there was a panel discussion by the resource persons from IIHR and the farmers present in the programme. Farmers raised queries on crop protection, which was successfully discussed by the resource persons present. The participants made a field visit and observed various IPM interventions followed in the tomato field.
The programme ended with a formal vote of thanks by Mrs. Jayanthi Mala, Scientist, Division of Crop protection. Head of the Basic Sciences division, Dr S Shivashankara, Vegetable Crops Head (I/c) & Principal Scientist, Dr Madhavi Reddy, Principal Scientist(s), Dr. C.K Narayana, Dr Ravishankar, Dr S Sriram, Dr Bhatt and several other scientific staff and Dr Onkara Naik, Technical Officer of ICAR-IIHR participated and witnessed the field day.
There were around 45 participants including more than 20 farmers who visited the demonstration field. This field day was coordinated by Dr. V Sridhar, Principal Scientist, Division of Crop Protection and Mr. Atheequlla G.A, Scientist, Division of Social Sciences and Training, ICAR-IIHR.
