The government yesterday announced that the environment-friendly integrated pest management (IPM) technology would be given a further push to achieve the twin objectives of saving crops from pests and avoiding ill-effects of pesticides.
Financial assistance was being extended to states through various centrally-sponsored schemes to promote the integrated pest management technology, agriculture secretary Bhaskar Barua said in the two-day national conference on plant protection that began here yesterday.
He said the biotechnology department and the biotech industry was also conducting a large number of demonstrations on fields to show the utility of this new technology in keeping the pest population under check.
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However, limited availability of eco-friendly and safe pesticides formulations at reasonable prices was proving a big constrain in this effort. Besides, the number of integrated pest management-trained master trainers was too small to cover a large section of the farming community.
Barua advised the states to implement the decision to set apart 10 per cent of the laboratory analysis capacity for testing the pesticides and fertiliser samples brought by farmers. This would help farmers know whether they were using genuine pesticides or spurious ones.
He said a Bill had been introduced in Parliament to make a law against spurious and adulterated pesticides more stringent.