TS: Scientists develop IPM method to combat tomato pest

Telangana: The Scientists of the World Vegetable Centre South Asia which is located at ICRISAT in Hyderabad, have developed an ‘Integrated Pest Management’ (IPM) approach for controlling the notorious pest ‘Tuta Absoluta’ that affects tomato crops and can destroy up to 100 per cent of the crop it infests.
The pest management approach was developed under the project ‘Resist Detect Protect: wide spectrum insect resistance and sound management strategies to sustainability manage insect pests on Solanaceous vegetables in South Asia.
With the help of innovative farmers, Venkat Reddy and Krishnaiah of Chinchalpet village, WorldVeg piloted an IPM strategy for the control of Tuta absoluta pest that was found to be damaging the crop up to 25% in the farms of the villages.
 As the damage symptoms of this insect pest appear similar to those caused by leaf miner, farmers were adopting the same control measures, before WorldVeg could set up this IPM trial.
The approach was earlier tested at Madanapalle in Andhra Pradesh, while in Telangana, the scientists have chosen Chinchalpet village in Nawabpet Mandal, Vikarabad District to test the effectiveness of their approach. The farmers here have attributed around 25 per cent damage to their crops to Tuta absoluta.
Dr. Ramasamy Srinivasan, Lead Entomologist & Flagship Program Leader Speaking to siasat.com, Dr. Ramasamy Srinivasan, Entomologist said, “The pest management technique developed by us can reduce the damage, increase the marketable yield and income of the farmers, while substantially reducing the use of chemical pesticides in tomato”.