Use Of Chemical Pesticides Research Articles

3G Cutting: An Innovative Tool in Cucurbitaceous Crops to Boost the Production and Doubling the Income of Small Farmers in a Per Unit Area

3G cutting is one of the most popular and successful inter-culture operations in cucurbitaceous crops like; bottle gourd, cucumber, pumpkin, sponge gourd, bitter gourd, etc. as well as in plants like tomato, eggplant, chilli, and lady’s finger for a small patch of land. Low fruit set is an emerging constraint in cucurbits, and when it does, extremely small-sized fruits develop and degrade the mother plant. This is the main problem that farmers are currently facing. This problem arises due to a rapid decrease in beneficial insects and other pollinators as a result of the haphazard use of foliar fertilizers and chemical pesticides. 3G cutting is a scientific process to get higher production from plants by increasing the number of female flowers in the plant by adopting practices like trimming and pruning of 1st and 2nd generation branches. Generally, 1G and 2G branches have more no. of male flowers than female (approximately in the ratio of 14:1) whereas this ratio is reduced to 1:2 in 3G branches. We are all known that fruits develop from female flowers, while one male flower can pollinate several female flowers. However, this does not imply that there is no need for male flowers. Male flowers are necessary for pollination. Thus, 3G cutting is the finest scientific practice for farmers to maximize the number of female flowers and fruit yield.

Ethnobotanical Survey on the Plants Used in the Control of Nematodes in the Zone of Niayes of Thies/Senegal

Crop losses in vegetable crops due to nematodes are a concern in a country like Senegal where food demand is increasingly high. The use of chemical pesticides has made great progress in increasing harvests in Senegal. But these pesticides have negative effects on the environment and on human health. Crops are often contaminated as well as groundwater. The use of natural products to remedy this phenomenon is very important, especially in areas such as the Niayes zone where the climate and soil are very favorable for market gardening and where water contamination is very sensitive. The aim of our study is to identify the plants used to control nematodes in the Niayes area of Thiès. To this end, we conducted an ethnobotanical survey of 100 people of different ages and sexes in this area. The results showed 17 plant species used to control nematodes in 12 families. Among these species, the most cited were Azadirachta indica A. Juss. Juss, Calotropis procera (Ait.) F. and Cassia Occidentalis L. Leaves (71%) are mostly used. The sample is often dried and ground (45%) or fresh (case of hydrodistillation) (53%) before preparation. Water (92%) is the most used solvent for extraction. Maceration (85%) and infusion are the most common preparation methods. The application of these preparations by systemic action (94%) is more adopted than fumigation. Local people find these preparations rather effective (78%), which is very encouraging. The present study constitutes a database for further studies in the field of Senegalese pharmacopeia. In addition, scientific research on bionematicidal substances may be conducted in the future to evaluate the effectiveness of these plants identified in the Niayes area of Thiès for the protection of vegetable crops against nematodes.

Hybrid Fungicides – An Easy Bridge to Trial of Biological Component for Improved Resistance Management and Better Crop Protection

The global search for plant-protection solutions that are both environmentally safe and effective is driven by the need to supply food to the ever-growing world population. The call for chemical load reduction is an important aspect for sustainable agriculture. Toxicity to non-target organisms and negative effects on human health by synthetic agrochemicals have led to a resurgence of interest in 'natural' means of pest and pathogen control, including new sources of biopesticides and botanical pesticides. In addition, there has been increasing pressure concerning the main challenges in crop protection, including better resistance management, regulatory demands, and consumer concerns. The control of plant diseases has depended increasingly on the extensive use of toxic pesticides. Inappropriate and prolonged applications of traditional chemical pesticides lead to environmental damage and adverse health effects. Furthermore, the extensive use of chemical pesticides led to the development of resistance to various plant pathogens. Therefore, improving resistance management is important. Also, consumers, including retail food chains, today demand healthier foods and more sustainable products with less chemical residue. Furthermore, an increasing number of governments and retail food chains have established strictly enforced chemical residue limits. If crops exceed these limits, they will not be allowed to enter these countries and retail food chains. However, there are several barriers to trial of biological products by growers, including the following: a). Biological products have a reputation for not working very effectively. Today there are many biological products that are as effective as synthetic chemicals, but the early impression from years ago remains among many growers, b) growers are very busy with current demands on their time, with most not having the time to learn new biology, reformulate their treatment regime, mixing and testing, and c) general resistance to change. Therefore, a new concept of 'hybrid products', as an easy bridge to trial biological component is suggested. Hybrid fungicides i.e., a combination of a natural product such as Tea Tree Oil (TTO) with broad-spectrum activity and a traditional site-specific chemical can be the 'bridge' between conventional agrochemical farming and sustainable farming. That is because it is a 'pre-mix' and is used in the same way as the grower's current chemical pesticide. Unlike other combinations based on two synthetic chemicals which in most cases have limited mechanisms of action, a premix with a botanical product provides multiple modes of action with an advantage for resistance management.

Survey of Pest Management Practices on US Golf Courses

Integrated pest management (IPM) is an important component of golf course maintenance and includes conventional chemical pesticide use as well as nonchemical cultural management practices. Determining how frequent pest management practices are used on golf courses is critical when developing educational and outreach programs. The objective of this study was to determine the frequency of pest management practices and pesticide mixing and storage facilities on US golf courses. A survey was sent to 14,033 operational US golf facilities with 10% responding. Reliance on all conventional chemical pesticides increased from 2015 to 2021. The reliance on biological control products declined to 14% and reliance on the nonpesticide practice of using plant growth regulators remained equivalent to 2015. The most common pest management practices included monitoring weather patterns and scouting for pests, with 93% of golf facilities reporting the use of both. The use of written IPM and pesticide application plans increased from 44% to 63% of golf facilities between 2015 and 2021, respectively. Generally, mixing and storage facilities remained unchanged from 2015 to 2021. US golf facilities continue to use nonchemical pest management practices, but reliance on chemical pesticides has increased.

Meat-eating: The Second Main Culprit of Climate Change

Background: Due to the greenhouse gases emission caused by human activities there is wide agreement about global warming. Methane is one of the most dangerous greenhouse gases in the global warming process which is produced through human activities and natural processes. In addition, the use of fertilizers and chemical pesticides would produce nitrogen monoxide in the atmosphere. This gas is another greenhouse gas that takes its toll on global warming. Materials and Methods: In this study, we reviewed articles published between the years (2005-2022). Scientific resources were searched in both Persian and English using the keywords (meat-eating, climate change, cattle, pig, and food) in the databases (Magiran), Pubmed, Scopus, and Google Scholar. Results: Population growth, economic development, and urban migration have stimulated unprecedented demand for animal protein such as meat and dairy products so that livestock in the traditional way no longer met this need of man for protein. About two to three billion cows and pigs are slaughtered annually resulting in a very high methane emission in nature that accelerates global warming. Conclusion: Shifting towards plant-rich diets and embracing alternative sources of protein could be helpful.

Construction of Jujube Quality and Safety Traceability System Based on Close Range Wireless Communication Technology

The quality and safety of jujube fruit is the key to ensuring the healthy development of the industry. Currently, there are problems such as unreasonable use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides in the traditional cultivation and management mode of the jujube industry. This article summarizes the construction of jujube quality and safety traceability system based on close range wireless communication technology. The system collects data on the use of pesticides, fertilizers, herbicides, and hormones during jujube production, processing, and circulation through NFC, and determines traceability information through the combination of hazard analysis of hazardous substances and key control points. It has developed a flexible mechanism and method for quality and safety traceability of tropical fruits and vegetables agricultural products, meeting the flexible management and configuration of traceability content, templates, and mechanisms, Realize the convenience of promoting the agricultural product traceability platform, and build an agricultural product quality and safety traceability management system according to the management needs of Hainan Agricultural Hi-Tech Zone, realizing functions such as enterprise settlement, product testing, and traceability information collection. Provide the application of the agricultural product quality and safety traceability system for enterprises settled in the agricultural Hi-Tech Zone, improving the settlement management level, and ensuring the reliability and traceability of agricultural product safety.

Botanical pesticide ability to control black pod rot of cacao Phytophthora palmivora (Butl.) Butl in the field

The use of synthetic chemical pesticides for cacao black pod rot disease control to remove heavy metal residues on cacao beans needs to be reduced. This research aimed to find out the ability of botanical pesticides to lower BPR incidence, BPR infection rate, and botanical pesticides’ efficacy in controlling BPR. It was conducted at the Cacao Research Substation Garden of the Plantation and Horticulture Office of Southeast Sulawesi. The treatments experimented included control (no pesticide), CNSE, CNSE + CSLS, CNSE + whiteflower albizia bark extract, CNSE + siam weed leaf extract, CNSE + candle bush leaf extract, CNSE + whiteflower albizia bark extract + siam weed leaf extract + candle bush leaf extract, and synthetic pesticide with active ingredient copper oxysulfate at 345 g/L. Group-randomized trial was used as design in triplicate. The research results showed that the botanical pesticides of CNSE, and the was mixture with of CSLS, siam weed leaf extract, candle bush leaf extract, and whiteflower albizia bark extract were able to lower the disease incidence and slow down the infection rate of BPR. The lowest BPR incidence and infection rates were discovered in the CNSE + Siam weed leaf extract treatment, each at 38.90% and 0.087 per pod per week. The CNSE botanical pesticide mixed with Siam weed leaf extract, whiteflower albizia bark extract, and candle bush leaf extract demonstrated good efficacy above 50%, hence feasible to use as an alternative to chemical pesticides in BPR control.

An Improved U-Net Model Based on Multi-Scale Input and Attention Mechanism: Application for Recognition of Chinese Cabbage and Weed

The accurate spraying of herbicides and intelligent mechanical weeding operations are the main ways to reduce the use of chemical pesticides in fields and achieve sustainable agricultural development, and an important prerequisite for achieving these is to identify field crops and weeds accurately and quickly. To this end, a semantic segmentation model based on an improved U-Net is proposed in this paper to address the issue of efficient and accurate identification of vegetable crops and weeds. First, the simplified visual group geometry 16 (VGG16) network is used as the coding network of the improved model, and then, the input images are continuously and naturally down-sampled using the average pooling layer to create feature maps of various sizes, and these feature maps are laterally integrated from the network into the coding network of the improved model. Then, the number of convolutional layers of the decoding network of the model is cut and the efficient channel attention (ECA) is introduced before the feature fusion of the decoding network, so that the feature maps from the jump connection in the encoding network and the up-sampled feature maps in the decoding network pass through the ECA module together before feature fusion. Finally, the study uses the obtained Chinese cabbage and weed images as a dataset to compare the improved model with the original U-Net model and the current commonly used semantic segmentation models PSPNet and DeepLab V3+. The results show that the mean intersection over union and mean pixel accuracy of the improved model increased in comparison to the original U-Net model by 1.41 and 0.72 percentage points, respectively, to 88.96% and 93.05%, and the processing time of a single image increased by 9.36 percentage points to 64.85 ms. In addition, the improved model in this paper has a more accurate segmentation effect on weeds that are close to and overlap with crops compared to the other three comparison models, which is a necessary condition for accurate spraying and accurate weeding. As a result, the improved model in this paper can offer strong technical support for the development of intelligent spraying robots and intelligent weeding robots.

Yield Response and Antioxidant Activity of Greenhouse Organic Pumpkin (Cucurbita moschata Duch.) as Affected by Soil Solarization and Biofumigation

In intensive cropping systems, soil fumigation, i.e., the use of gas chemical pesticides applied to the soil covered with impermeable plastic film, represents an effective method to control most of the soilborne pests. However, its general non-selectivity to the useful soil microflora and microfauna together with their significant environmental problems has limited their use. Numerous studies have concerned the application of less impactful but, at the same time, equally effective disinfection methods. These are techniques with a low environmental impact that are particularly suitable for horticultural systems. Among these, both soil solarization and biofumigation are popular techniques, even in organic vegetable cropping systems. This paper reports the results of a study to evaluate the effects of soil solarization on the yield response and the antioxidant levels of organic pumpkin (Cucurbita moscata Duch.). Solarization was carried out alone and with the addition of some organic matrices, such as compost, manure and green manure species. The evaluation of the antioxidant activity was carried out with DPPH (1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl radical) assay: DPPH has a specific absorption band, which disappears in presence of an antiradical compound, showing its antioxidant capacity. Our results revealed that the pumpkins grown in solarized soil had IC50, i.e., the concentration of sample which reduced the initial DPPH of 50%, values ranging between 0.6 to 18.0 mg mL−1, lower than the values of IC50 of pumpkins grown in non-solarized soil, which ranged from 36.0 to 43.6 mg mL−1. The obtained results highlighted the validity and utility of solarization for the organic vegetable crops. Furthermore, this technique has also shown its effectiveness in the long term since yield increases concerned several crops in succession. Finally, our results highlighted that heat treatment solarization can influence the level of several compounds in the pumpkin, and, therefore, also of the polysaccharides.

Essential Oils as Nematicides in Plant Protection-A Review.

By 2030, the European Commission intends to halve chemical pesticide use and its consequent risks. Among pesticides, nematicides are chemical agents used to control parasitic roundworms in agriculture. In recent decades, researchers have been looking for more sustainable alternatives with the same effectiveness but a limited impact on the environment and ecosystems. Essential oils (EOs) are similar bioactive compounds and potential substitutes. Different studies on the use of EOs as nematicides are available in the Scopus database in the scientific literature. These works show a wider exploration of EO effects in vitro than in vivo on different nematode populations. Nevertheless, a review of which EOs have been used on different target nematodes, and how, is still not available. The aim of this paper is to explore the extent of EO testing on nematodes and which of them have nematicidal effects (e.g., mortality, effects on motility, inhibition of egg production). Particularly, the review aims to identify which EOs have been used the most, on which nematodes, and which formulations have been applied. This study provides an overview of the available reports and data to date, downloaded from Scopus, through (a) network maps created by VOSviewer software (version 1.6.8, Nees Jan van Eck and Ludo Waltman, Leiden, The Netherlands) and (b) a systematic analysis of all scientific papers. VOSviewer created maps with keywords derived from co-occurrence analysis to understand the main keywords used and the countries and journals which have published most on the topic, while the systematic analysis investigated all the documents downloaded. The main goal is to offer a comprehensive understanding of the potential use of EOs in agriculture as well as which directions future research should move toward.

Study on the Impact of Agrochemicals on Environment and Human Health in North 24 Parganas District of West Bengal: An Insight of Farmers’ Perception

Nowadays farmers use more and more chemical pesticides and fertilizer per acre of land in return to maximize crop production. Crop Protection from various types of pests and weeds is another concerning issue. Climate also plays more significant role by increasing temperature, it multiplies the use of insecticides. Excessive use of chemical fertilizer and pesticides pollutes the environment simultaneously and it also affects the food chain and human health. Farmer is the primary user of chemical inputs in the field. Therefore, this study aims to analyze farmers' knowledge and information related to safety concern of agrochemical uses and their impact on the environment and human health. The data of this cross-sectional study has been collected from randomly selected 50 farmers of Amdanga Block of North 24 Pargana district, West Bengal through a semi-structured interview schedule. In this study, it has been found that 54% of farmers use crop-wise fertilizer more than the recommended amount; only 10% of farmers abstain from chemical fertilizer use. There is a significant relationship between crop-wise fertilizer use and the application of weedicides and pesticides to the environment. The farmers who are using this kind of chemical pesticides reported severe environmental hazards like 62% of farmers observe any birds extinction surrounding their agricultural field, 36% responded that the water quality of the pond nearest to the agricultural field deteriorates and 28% reported occurrence of fish death and 36% farmer reported that on monsoon season their field water goes to low water region (Bil) and contaminate water. On the other hand, most of the respondents experience health issues like nausea, headache, and skin problem immediately after spraying on the field. It has been also found that 62% of respondents knew that the use of pesticides and weedicides impacts our health. Still, only 40% always use any protective measure while spraying on the field. ..............

Bioactive Metabolite Survey of Actinobacteria Showing Plant Growth Promoting Traits to Develop Novel Biofertilizers

The use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides has caused harmful impacts on the environment with the increase in economic burden. Biofertilizers are biological products containing living microorganisms capable of improving plant growth through eco-friendly mechanisms. In this work, three actinobacterial strains Streptomyces violaceoruber, Streptomyces coelicolor, and Kocuria rhizophila were characterized for multiple plant growth promoting (PGP) traits such as indole acetic acid production, phosphate solubilization, N2-fixation, and drought and salt tolerance. Then, these strains were investigated for their secreted and cellular metabolome, revealing a rich arsenal of bioactive molecules, including antibiotics and siderophores, with S. violaceoruber being the most prolific strain. Furthermore, the in vivo assays, performed on tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.), resulted in an improved germination index and the growth of seedlings from seeds treated with PGP actinobacteria, with a particular focus on S. violaceoruber cultures. In particular, this last strain, producing volatile organic compounds having antimicrobial activity, was able to modulate volatilome and exert control on the global DNA methylation of tomato seedlings. Thus, these results, confirming the efficacy of the selected actinobacteria strains in promoting plant growth and development by producing volatile and non-volatile bioactive molecules, can promote eco-friendly alternatives in sustainable agriculture.

Biopotential of microalgal extracts as a mosquito larvicide: An eco-friendly approach to control Aedes aegypti

Introduction and Aim: The use of chemical pesticides has raised concerns about their safety and toxicological effects on the environment, people, and other species. Therefore, there is a demand for natural alternatives that are eco- friendly, biodegradable, and target specific. The purpose of this study was to test the larvicidal activity of three microalgae namely, Chlorella sp., Chlorococcum sp., and Scenedesmus sp., against Aedes aegypti. Materials and Methods: The microalgal extracts were prepared with different concentrations after suitable pretreatment and extraction process. The effect of extracts was tested on Aedes aegypti larvae exposed to different concentrations after 24 and 48 hours. Results: The ethanol extract of the Scenedesmus sp. showed the highest larvicidal activity. Whereas the larvicidal activity of methanol extract of the Chlorococcum sp. was the lowest. The phytochemical screening of algal extracts revealed the presence of phytochemicals present in the microalgal extracts namely flavonoids, terpenoids, alkaloids, quinones, saponins, and cellulose Conclusion: This study demonstrated the biopotential of microalgae extracts for the control of the dengue vector, Aedes aegypti. Thus, the use of microalgae can be considered as an alternative to the conventional insecticides as it is more sustainable, non-toxic, and eco-friendly.

Synergistic Interconstruction of the Green Development Concept in Chinese Rural Ecological Agriculture

The development of industrialization has overwhelmed an ecological environment damaged by the modern agricultural method. The development of a circular economy, which focuses on green development while balancing the development of agricultural production capacity, has led to the emergence of ecoagriculture. This study examines the impact of the green development concept on farmers’ income, using the practice of the green development concept of ecoagriculture in Guangdong province, China, as an example. The study uses the entropy method to verify whether the green development concept advocated by top-down policies genuinely benefits farmers’ living standards. The study results are as follows. First, the green development concept’s application in Guangdong province’s agricultural production and the two-way granger causality relationship between farmer income and food production interact. Second, chemical fertilizers and pesticides have played an important role in promoting the development of agricultural production. Third, in the long run, the greater the use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides will reduce farmers’ incomes. In summary, from the perspective of sustainable development, green development will promote increased income for China’s farmers and improve rural development. It is essential to implement the concept of green development in the process of rural modernization.

Nanotechnological approaches for management of soil-borne plant pathogens.

Soil borne pathogens are significant contributor of plant yield loss globally. The constraints in early diagnosis, wide host range, longer persistence in soil makes their management cumbersome and difficult. Therefore, it is crucial to devise innovative and effective management strategy to combat the losses caused by soil borne diseases. The use of chemical pesticides is the mainstay of current plant disease management practices that potentially cause ecological imbalance. Nanotechnology presents a suitable alternative to overcome the challenges associated with diagnosis and management of soil-borne plant pathogens. This review explores the use of nanotechnology for the management of soil-borne diseases using a variety of strategies, such as nanoparticles acting as a protectant, as carriers of actives like pesticides, fertilizers, antimicrobials, and microbes or by promoting plant growth and development. Nanotechnology can also be used for precise and accurate detection of soil-borne pathogens for devising efficient management strategy. The unique physico-chemical properties of nanoparticles allow greater penetration and interaction with biological membrane thereby increasing its efficacy and releasability. However, the nanoscience specifically agricultural nanotechnology is still in its toddler stage and to realize its full potential, extensive field trials, utilization of pest crop host system and toxicological studies are essential to tackle the fundamental queries associated with development of commercial nano-formulations.

Seed priming by application of Microbacterium spp. strains for control of Botrytis cinerea and growth promotion of lettuce plants

The abusive use of chemical pesticides to control plant diseases has caused the loss of soil biodiversity as well as the emergence of resistance by plant pathogens. This effect has forced an urgent search for other environmentally sustainable alternatives that serve to control plant pathogens safely and efficiently. In this sense, the search for new biopesticides is currently a booming field within the field of agro-biotechnology. Volatile compounds produced by plant-associated microorganisms represent a diverse resource to promote plant growth and health. In this work, a collection of 29 strains of the genus Microbacterium from the composting of plant remains was studied. The objective was to determine whether the production of volatile compounds of microbial origin could contribute to the mitigation of symptoms caused by the fungus Botrytis cinerea (gray mold) as well as contribute to the lettuce plant growth in seedbeds. It should be noted that in both the B. cinerea inhibition and seed priming assays, the microorganisms did not come into direct contact with either the pathogen or the seeds. In all cases, incubation was carried out in a closed environment to expose the seeds to the microbial volatiles. Five strains capable of inhibiting the in vitro growth of B. cinerea at levels greater than 30% were pre-selected. Only 3 of these 5 strains, identified as M. aerolatum, M. foliorum and M. profundi showed positive results in the in vitro germination promotion test in lettuce seeds, increasing the radicle weight at levels close to 45%. These strains finally were tested in planta, showing two of them significant palliative effects of B. cinerea and promoting the development of lettuce seedlings both at aerial and root levels.

Some Thoughts on Biopesticides

Although Rachel Carson warned that the use of chemical pesticides can result in adverse effects on the environment, relatively few insecticides, such as DDT were banned, except where it was used inside houses to control mosquitoes. Many highly hazardous pesticides have continued to be used by farmers, but more attention is now given to use eco-friendly safer products such as biopesticides with the number of scientific research papers being increased by 71.24% between 2011 and 2021. However, the adoption of these biopesticides has been relatively modest as their impact on pests is often slow and the persistence of spray deposits exposed to sunlight can be significantly reduced. Certain biopesticides are not new as pyrethrum was known in Iran as far back as 400BC. With more attention to it early in the 19th Century in Europe where it initially referred to as “Dalmatian powder”, obtained from the flower heads of a plant now called Chrysanthemum cinerariaefolium, grown in the Balkans. Later it was shown that pyrethrum consisted of two active components Pyrethrin I and Pyrethrin II which could be synergised by mixing with piperonyl butoxide, but it was confined to indoor use as it was not persistent when exposed to sunlight. Much later in studies at Rothamsted a photostable pyrethroid was developed which was persistent when sprayed on crops. Today, biopesticides have been derived not only from extracts from plants, but also by using pathogenic microorganisms to provide bioinsecticides, such as Bacillus thuringiensis, biofungicides (e.g. Trichoderma) and bioherbicides (e.g. Phytopthora) indicated biopesticides have benefits.

Contribution of Indigenous Innovations for Mitigating Fall Armyworm (Spodoptera frugiperda J. E. Smith) among Maize Farmers for Improved Food Security

Fall armyworm (FAW) is a new invasive pest that causes economic damage to a wide variety of crops. This pest is estimated to reduce maize yields by about 60%. FAW could cause crop losses of up to US$13 billion annually across sub-Saharan Africa, threatening the livelihoods of millions of resource-poor farmers worldwide. Governments have warned against the indiscriminate use of chemical pesticides that could undermine pest control strategies for smallholder farmers who rely heavily on natural enemies. Since the invasion of this pest in Kenya, there have been limited studies conducted on indigenous innovations to tackle the challenges of FAW infestation. There has also been limited knowledge of the effects of the indigenous innovations adopted by smallholder farmers on crop production. A total of 150 farmers from Busia, Siaya, and Vihiga counties were purposely sampled and appropriately informed about the indigenous innovations they developed to address and leverage FAW challenges with the help of well-structured questionnaires. The impact of indigenous innovations on crop production were evaluated. Analysis of quantitative data was performed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 20 to facilitate descriptive and inferential analysis of the study variables and by carrying out the Binomial Logistic regression analysis for objectives i, ii, iii and iv, respectively. Results were presented as descriptive statistics and inferential statistics, respectively. The dependent variable was the FAW pest awareness, while the independent variables were age, gender, education level, farm size, employment status and income, respectively.

Control of Spodoptera frugiperda on Fresh Corn via Pesticide Application before Transplanting

Background: Pesticide application before transplanting crops has been widely used in rice as an economical and effective method for reducing the use of chemical pesticides. This study focused on the feasibility of the application of pesticides before transplanting in a fresh corn nursery to control Spodoptera frugiperda. Methods: Three pesticides, including 35% Chlorantraniliprole WDG, 6% Spinetoram SC, and 3% Emamectin Benzoate WDG, combined with Polyorganosilicon (HTY-A8) or special flight additives (MF) as synergists were used and their toxicity was determined in the larvae of S. frugiperda feeding on sweet corn in the third leaf stage treated with 5 and 25 times the conventional field application concentration. The best combinations were tested in the field. The results showed that S. frugiperda exhibited high sensitivity to the three pesticides. The period of pest control validity of 35% Chlorantraniliprole WDG and 6% Spinetoram SC in the larvae was about 20 days, while that of 3% Emamectin Benzoate WDG was much shorter. The active component content of Chlorantraniliprole in the corn leaves was significantly higher than that of Emamectin Benzoate and Spinetoram. The pest control effects of Chlorantraniliprole were significantly promoted by HTY-A8 and MF. The field experiment showed that the control effect on S. frugiperda could last for 17 days by spraying Chlorantraniliprole or Spinetoram at 25 times the conventional concentration before transplanting, Furthermore, this method could reduce the amount of active ingredient to 4/5 or 3/4 of that found in a single field spray or seed coating treatment, respectively. Conclusions: This study puts forward a new method to effectively control S. frugiperda in the seedling stage of fresh corn.

Aligning Agricultural Research and Extension for Sustainable Development Goals in India: A Case of Farmer FIRST Programme

Agricultural development and farmers’ welfare occupy a central place in the development goals of India. Various pathways which have evolved over the years have been implemented in the country to propel agricultural growth by shifting its focus from achieving food sufficiency to sustainable income and inclusive growth. The Farmer FIRST Programme (FFP), an innovative frontline extension program of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), was launched in 2016 to enhance the reach and effectiveness of agricultural research with a multi-stakeholder approach. This paper evaluates the outcomes of the FFP implemented in ICAR institutions for the upscaling of those promising technologies, which have resulted in a significant impact on the farming community. The criteria chosen for assessing the outcomes are farm income, cropping intensity, use of chemical fertilizers, pesticides, and organic manure, and nutritional security. The data were collected from 50 FFP-implementing institutions for the period 2016–2021 and grouped into six different zones. The results revealed that there is a significant increase in income, cropping intensity, nutritional security, and saving pesticides through this program. The nutritional security, measured using cereal equivalent quantity (CEQ), showed a considerable increase in average consumption in all the zones. Overall, FFP interventions have resulted in achieving significantly higher income and the nutritional security of the farmholds compared to the control. The recorded results are favorable for scaling up and institutionalizing the FFP approach at the national level. The study recommends a participatory mode of an interdisciplinary approach for the effective scaling-up of the FFP across the agricultural research and development landscape of India.