Muhammad Nawaz Shareef University Of Agriculture Orgainizes Capacity Building Workshop On White Fly, Pink Bollworm

A capacity building training for officers of Department of Agriculture Extension was organized by the Department of Entomology, Muhammad Nawaz Shareef University of Agriculture.

MULTAN, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 6th Jun, 2018 ) :A capacity building training for officers of Department of Agriculture Extension was organized by the Department of Entomology, Muhammad Nawaz Shareef University of Agriculture.

Deputy Directors of all districts that falls under cotton zone belonged to 6 Divisions including Multan, Bahawalpur, Sargodha, Lahore, Dera Ghazi Khan and Sahiwal including other officers of Tehsils and Agriculture Officers participated. Prof. Dr. Asif Ali (VC) and Zafaryab Haider, Director General Agriculture Extension Punjab jointly chaired the workshop.

Purpose of training was to improve the farmer services through capacity building of Agriculture Extension Services to the farmers of cotton zone.

Prof. Dr. Shafqat Saeed Dean, Faculty of Agriculture & Environmental Sciences delivered informative lecture regarding whitefly monitoring and management.

He briefly explained different scouting methods, host plants and control measures to control whitefly population.

He focused on the integrated methods for the control of whitefly.

He also provided information regarding different insect predators of whitefly. He recommended that whitefly eggs are about 55 per cent in numbers while nymph were present 25 pc.

Nymph is the most destructive in nature. To control whitefly nymph population there should be need to take measure to increase the population of predatory insects like, Crysopa, Geocorus, Orious and Spiders so that by using this technique the chemical pressure on cotton crop should be minimized.

For the production of these predatory insects the destruction of natural weeds host plants of these insects like (Shatar) Parthinium, Akk, Jungli Palak, and Batho should be avoided outside the field.

Recommended insecticides against whitefly are Spirotetramate, Pyriproxifin, Buprofezin and Diafenthuron, these are considered as safe insecticides against natural enemies.

Zafaryab Haider, DG Agriculture Extension Punjab praised the struggles of Dr. Asif Ali VC for arranging such informative sessions for farmers which will be beneficial for farming community.

He also ensured that agriculture department will also provide such beneficial information to farmers.

On this occasion, Dr. M. Ishtiaq, Assistant Prof. Department of Entomology talked about Pink bollworm status on Bt cotton according to his survey results. He explained that we have collected samples of bolls of cotton from different farmer fields of different districts of cotton zone. He said that there is not a single Bt cultivar expressing Cry1Ac resist PBW. All the cultivars showed high rate of pink bollworm infestation. He also told that Ginnig factories waste and cotton sticks has number of PBW larvae that is big source of PBW for next year. He suggested some management strategies being adopted worldwide. He also emphasized that it could be controlled through community involvement and all stakeholders must play their role in PBW management.

Later, Dr. Arshad Shakeel shared his experience that early sown cotton is under worst attack of PBW that verify the survey results of Dr. M. Ishtiaq. He suggested to form a team of experts to formulate recommendation for whole Punjab rather depending on CCMG meetings.

Engnr Dr. Alsmgeer, delivered a comprehensive lecture on spraying techniques. He recommend that flow of spray material should be uniform and it should cover the whole area without interruption. He told about different types of sprayers, nozzles, spraying methods in detail which will help to control insect pests of cotton in an effective way.

Chaudhry Naseer Ahmad, Deputy Director Agri Extension Lahore said that this university was playing an important role in the development of Agriculture farm area and for providing a platform for different stakeholder to gather and share knowledge.

Dr. Sagheer Ahamd (Director Cotton Research Station, Multan), Rana Ahmad Munir(Director Agriculture, Multan), Jamal Ahmad (Deputy Director, Khanewal), Shahid Bukhari (Deputy Director, Taba tak sigh) and others attended the training.