North Eastern Tea Association organised seminar on integrated pest management

A CORRESPONDENT

GOLAGHAT: North Eastern Tea Association (NETA) recently organised a seminar on integrated pest management to effectively control the pests and diseases in tea plantations. The topic of the seminar was 'Climate Smart Advance Integrated Pest Management For Tea Plantation : A Sustainable Approach' and the resource person was Dr Somnath Roy, In-charge of Dept of Entomology, Tocklai Tea Research Institute, Jorhat, stated a press release.

In tea plantations there are wide spectrum of pests and diseases which needs to be dealt so that there is no crop loss. Moreover, cost of pest management has been spiralling over the years and is a burden for tea farmers. Also, pests are getting immune and resistant to pesticides. Keeping that in mind, it was found that Integrated Pest Management (IPM) along with Integrated Nutrition Management (INM) is the way forward for sustainability of tea plantations.

Healthy plants are always less susceptible to pests infestation. Healthy plant can be produced only on healthy soil. Therefore, focus on improvement of soil health is a major outcome of the seminar. Use of Indigenous Technical Knowledge (ITK) was also discussed at length in the seminar. Locally available trees and vegetation like Maha Neem, Ghora Neem, Dhopat Tita, Khorapat etc have anti-insect properties. Also, cow urine diluted with water is effective in controlling some pests and acts as a growth promoter of crops. Botanicals fermented in cow urine also help in controlling pests.

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