Minister of State for Agriculture & Farmers Welfare Dr. Sanjeev Kumar Balyan reiterated government’s commitment for promotion of bio-pesticide in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday. He added that the practice of judicious use of chemical pesticides would not be jettisoned.
Balyan said”the Government of India is promoting use of bio-pesticides under the Integrated Pest Management (IPM) approach which employs cultural, mechanical & biological methods of pest control.”
The Central Integrated Pest Management Centres (CIPMCs) promote IPM through Farmers’ Field Schools and various training programmes. Package of practices for control of pests and diseases in 66 crops have been revised to include techniques to reduce dependence on chemical pesticides and encourage use of bio-pesticides and other alternative plant protection measures, Balyan said.
The requirement for registration of bio-pesticides has been simplified to facilitate introduction of bio-pesticides. Central Government provides grant-in-aid of Rs.45.00 lakhs for building and Rs.20.00 lakh for procuring equipments for Bio-control Laboratories for production of bio-control agents including bio-pesticides to State Governments. Central Government also provides Rs.20.00 lakh as grants-in-aid to State Governments for procuring equipments for Bio-pesticides Testing Laboratories, he averred.
Farmers Field Schools are being organized with the assistance of Central Integrated Pest Management Centres (CIPMCs) across the country (including Haryana, Punjab and Rajasthan) in crops like cotton, vegetables, potato, tomato, citrus (Kinno) which are considered as preferable hosts for white fly, wherein the farmers are being trained/ taught about the identification and conservation methods of various predators like chrysopa, lady bird beetles, spiders and other predatory fauna found in agro eco-system, he said.