To monitor and scout for the devastating insect ‘fall army worm’ in different crop stages, one day officers training programme on the ‘Fall army worm management’ was held in Imphal on Saturday.
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The training programme for the agriculture officers was jointly organised by Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) Manipur Centre and ICAR-Indian Institute of Maize Research, Ludhiana and Directorate of Agriculture Government of Manipur under collaborative project Promoting improved technology of maize production in north-eastern hill region, four days after the news of detecting one of the most devastating insect of many economically important crops including maize, native to the tropical and subtropical region north America by ICAR scientists.
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Director Lalanpuii Vanchhong of Agriculture department, Government of Manipur, Registrar Dr K Mamocha Singh of Central Agricultural Univrersity, Imphal and Joint Director Dr I Meghachandra Singh of ICAR Manipur Centre, Imphal attended the inaugural function of the training programme.
Director Lalanpuii of Agriculture informed that in the backdrop of the recent discovery and detection of FAW (fall army worm) in Manipur, the joint Action Committee comprising of various officials of different departments has gone on survey and it was decided to train the state Agriculture officials who form the front line extension system in the state to meet the threat caused by the invasive pest.
The inaugural programme ended with vote of thanks by Dr M A Ansari, Scientist, ICAR.
In the technical session ICAR scientists including Dr Arati Ningombam, Dr Romila Akoijam, Prof Mamocha of CAU and Deputy Director Dr O Tarunkumar Singh of Central Integrated Pest Management Centre, Manipur shared presentation to the officers on different management practices.
In the day’s training session, the state officials were given training on how to identify this new insects from both the caterpillar and adult stage and showed them the live insects.
The different management strategies to be taken up starting from cultural, mechanical, bio-control and bio-pesticides and lastly chemical measures were discussed in the day’s session, according to sources from ICAR Manipur Centre which was given the task of providing technical support in controlling the insects.
Apart from field demonstrations on spray and seed treatment and various aspects of integrated Pest management under the central policy of the plant production systems, demonstration on seed treatment, whorl application using knapsack sprayer and use of pheromone traps were also done in the maize standing crop of the ICAR research farm.