The country is losing billions of rupees due to pests including pink bollworm and fruitfully. It demands step-up efforts on the part of researchers, experts and extension workers to improve the situation, said University of Agriculture Faisalabad Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Iqrar Ahmad Khan.

He was talking to Director General Pest Warning Punjab Khalid Mehmood at his chamber. Chairman Entomology Department Prof Dr Jalal Arif and Dr Mansoor Sahi also attended the meeting. The Vice Chancellor said that the government was striving hard to reduce cost of production for farming community by taking plant protection initiatives. He said that last year, cotton production had reduced upto 35 percent due to pest and climate changes issues. He added that foolproof measures were being adopted to bring the cotton production back to foot this year. Prof Dr Iqrar Ahmad Khan said that only fruitfly was causing $200 million annual loss to the country and termed it a serious threat to export of fruits and vegetables. He said that plant protection measures helped increase per hectare yield by protecting crops from diseases and controlling the pests. He said modern practices like integrated pest management must be promoted and practiced in the fields to reduce the hazardous usage of pesticides. He said that the Department of Entomology was mapping out a national plan on palm weevil, fruit fly, and wheat aphid. He pinned hope on experts to solve the issue at national level would come up with solution to issue that will be made national address to increase its productivity. Khalid Mehmmod said that Directorate of Pest Warning and Quality Control of Pesticides is contributing to address the issue of quality pesticides which is a big threat to human life and business of farming community. He also pointed out that there was very few accredited lab to monitor the quality of pesticides in the country. He said the number of accredited labs is being raised by establishing more labs in the province to address the issue. He said that bollworm issue should be addressed in August otherwise it will be difficult to manage in September. He added that they had developed pink bollworm prediction model for monitoring the bollworm in the province. With the help of Entomology Department, they will further enhance their work on the management of pink bollworm and fruitfly. Talking about the dengue, he pointed out that dengue virus was targeting only male human whereas it had not killed any female till now. He said that little work had been done on such aspect of the dengue behavior. He also pointed out cases of dengue fever were common in the cities compared to villages. He urged the scientists to look into the matter and come up with tangible results. Prof Dr Jalal Arif said that they had initiated systemic and comprehensive work on the management of pink bollworm, fruitfly, and wheat aphid which is the big issue for economic crops. He said the department was running the Research &Development projects worth 100 million rupees under the leadership of Vice Chancellor. He said that they had developed a protocol for the Maximum Residue Limit for the registration of pesticides. He added that they were refurbishing the skills of the students to become self employed with their innovative ideas rather than looking at the jobs. He called for creating the awareness among the masses about the pesticides and its uses to increase the productivity. The Director General also visited the Department of Entomology’s different labs and appreciated the work being done by the researchers. He also gave them the suggestions and tips about the research and discussed the area of mutual concerns.