Plant Protection (Entomology and Plant Pathology)
Plant Protection combines insect pests, diseases and pesticide handling, and is where careless candidates lose easy marks on doses and labels.
Integrated Pest Management
- Cultural: resistant varieties, timely sowing, crop rotation, deep summer ploughing, clean cultivation.
- Mechanical: hand picking, light traps, pheromone traps, bird perches.
- Biological: Trichoderma, Trichogramma, NPV, Bt formulations, neem products.
- Chemical: need-based sprays at economic threshold level, rotating modes of action.
Pests and diseases to know
Bajra: shoot fly, stem borer, downy mildew (Sclerospora graminicola). Mustard: aphid, painted bug, white rust (Albugo candida), Alternaria blight. Wheat: termites, aphid, rusts (Puccinia species), loose smut. Cotton: pink bollworm, whitefly. Groundnut: leaf miner, tikke (Cercospora).
Pesticide label
Formulations are EC, WP, SC, dust or granules. The toxicity triangle is red (extremely toxic), yellow (highly toxic), blue (moderately toxic) and green (slightly toxic). Always note the waiting period before harvest.
Worked example
Prepare 200 L of 0.05% spray from a 50% EC product. Active ingredient needed = 200 × 0.05 ÷ 100 = 0.1 L = 100 mL. Commercial product = 100 ÷ 0.50 = 200 mL. So measure 200 mL of the 50% EC into 200 L of water.
Traps that cost marks
Confusing active ingredient with product volume; spraying without an ETL; forgetting the waiting period on vegetables; ignoring the label colour triangle.