Training to Agri Input dealers at Thoothukudi District on Maize Fall Army Worm Management and Soil Health card based fertilizer recommendation

    Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Thoothukudi along with Department of Agriculture, Thoothukudi organized a training programme for Agri input dealers of Thoothukudi district on Maize fall army worm management.

    Maize crop occupies 55,000 hectare in the Thoothukudi district. Last season there was an unexpected outbreak of new invasive pest familiarly known as Fall Army Worm. Most of the area under maize crops were affected by Fall Army Worm, FAW made its foot prints not only in Thoothukudi district but also in many parts if the country.

In this occasion, to prevent the FAW attack in the upcoming season, training was organized by Department of Agri at KVK for FAW Management. Around 120 input dealers, Agricultural department officials from Thoothukudi district participated in the training.

Dr. V. Srinivasan, Senior Scientist and Head, KVK Thoothukudi welcomed the participant and interacted with them. Then Mr. Magadevan Joint Director of Agriculture, Thoothukudi delivered presidential address and requested participants to make use of training program.

Next to this T.S. Balasubramanian, PA to Collector, T. Tamil Malar, Deputy Director (GOI), N.A.M. Raja Singh Deputy Director (SS) and A. Natchiyar Ammal Deputy Director (Seed Inspection) were delivered special address. Input dealers were advised to sell only recommended doses of Fertilizers and Pesticides to the farmers.

Later Dr. Balakrishnan and Dr. Ravi from Department of Entomology, Agricultural College and Research Institute, Killikulam were delivered detailed lecture on Fall Army Worm identification, Symptoms, Life Cycle, Spread and Management aspects.

Then A. Murugan Subject Matter Specialist (Agronomy) from KVK delivered lecture on Maize cultivation practices, precaution measures to tackle Fall Army Worm attack and SHC based fertilizer recommendations.

During the training awareness video film on Fall Army Worm was telecasted and FAW control measures technology leaflet was distributed. The practices like Intercropping with Pulses, Border Cropping with Sunflower and Cumber Napier fodder crop, destroying egg masses of Fall Army Worm, installing sex pheromone traps and applying chemicals at wholes of crop were recommended to manage Fall Army Worm.

L.S. Manogaran, Secretary, District input dealers association, Thoothukudi has requested all the input dealers to coordinate by following the guidelines provided in this training to prevent maize crop from Fall Army Worm attack in the upcoming Rabi season. At the end, N. Malarvizhi, Agricultural Officer (QC) thanked the participants.