Farmers’ Knowledge and Perception on Major Insect Pests of Rice and Their Management Practices in Lamjung District, Nepal

Abstract

Rice, the major staple food crop of Nepal, confronts various insect pests and diseases during its life cycle. The losses accounts 25–30% of its production in Nepal. The research interprets knowledge of farmers, regarding occurrence of various insect pests and diseases, damage created by them and management practices, of 40 local paddy growers in rice production hubs of Lamjung district. A survey research design was implemented to collect and interpret the data. The youth involvement was found less in the study area with the average age of 45. Rice gundhi bug and yellow stem borer were most detrimental to the standing crop, while rice weevil and grain moth were the greatest threats during storage. About 30% reported similar, yet, other 30% reported increased occurrence of insect pests compared to past. Only half of the respondents used chemical pesticides on standing crop and storage while rest did not use chemical pesticides. Likewise, 32.50% farmers did not use any management practices while the rest used alternative methods like botanicals, IPM and other. Most of the knowledge they possessed on management practices was obtained from their own experience with pesticide information from agrovets; and on average, half of respondents were aware about the nature and characteristics of chemical pesticide including information on banned pesticide. Keywords: botanicals, insect pests, pesticides, rice Cite this Article Sushma Adhikari, Rameshwor Pudasaini, Suvam Bhattarai et al . Farmers’ Knowledge and Perception on Major Insect Pests of Rice and Their Management Practices in Lamjung District, Nepal . Research & Reviews: Journal of Agricultural Science and Technology . 2018; 7(3): 1–6p.