: The environment-friendly biological control methods must be put into practice on a large scale, apart from using pesticides to control the pests affecting several crops, Assistant Director General of the National Agriculture Research Institute P.K. Chakravrathi said here on Tuesday.
There was also a need to make farmers adopt at the field level the biological control methods that proved to be a successful, Dr. Chakravarthi said while inaugurating a two-day all-India coordinated research project on biological control of crop pests, being organised by the Acharya N.G. Ranga Agriculture University and the National Bureau of Agriculture Insect Resources (Bengaluru).
Director of NBAIR Abraham Varghese said biological control methods have been successfully tested on pests in several crops. Director of Research of ANGRAU N.V. Nayudu said sugarcane growers were supplied with biological control parasites developed at the Regional Agriculture Research Station at Anakapalle.
Biological control methods were very useful in the case of horticulture crops, Vice-Chancellor of ANGRAU B.M.V. Reddy said and wanted more research and extension work done in this area. Director (extension) K. Raja Reddy released pamphlets on biological control methods.
