Diagnosis of Farmers Technological Problems Pertaining to Insect Pest, Diseases and Nutrient Deficiency Symptoms in Rabi Crops at KVK Kapurthala (original) (raw)

It has been found earlier that during different seasons in a year, number of farmers seeking technical guidance regarding agriculture and allied fields varied to a large extent. Hence, efforts were made to diagnose farmers’ technological problems pertaining to insect pest, diseases and nutrient deficiency symptoms in rabi crops. During the last 3 years i.e. from 2013 to 2015, record of all the visiting farmers was maintained in the plant health diagnostic laboratory at the Krishi Vigyan Kendra (KVK) in which complete details of the farmer with address and contact number was maintained. The study revealed that out of 95 farmers who visited the KVK campus with queries pertaining to wheat crop, per cent farmers visited during the month of April, May, June, July, August, September and October were 10.4, 8.6, 2.3, 23.5, 15.2 and 40.1, respectively. It was found that 47.3 per cent farmers enquired about seed treatment in wheat and 9.1 per cent samples showed manganese deficiency symptoms. Twenty farmers visited KVK with samples infested with the attack of aphids. Among the diseases, wheat crop was found to be damaged by yellow rust only caused by Puccinia striiformis West and that too in the month of February and March. 33.3 per cent samples were brought by the farmers in the month of February and 65 per cent samples in the month of March. Like wheat, gram was also found prone to attack of insect pest and diseases. A total 62 farmers visited the KVK with queries pertaining to the gram crop during September to March months in which 75.8 per cent farmers enquired about seed treatment. Most common problem faced by the farmer was attack of H. armigera on the gram crop. Its population starts developing in the month of January and attained its highest peak in the months of February and March as was revealed by the number of samples received. Thus, it can be said that most important task was identification of the disease, attack of insect pest or deficiency symptoms of the nutrient so that proper remedial measured can be taken up timely. Key words: Diagnosis, Technological problems, Insect pest, Diseases, Wheat, Gram, Rapeseed