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host PBW wild insects (which are
not resistant to Bt ) and prevent
resistance buildup in PBW by
mating with mutant insects ( which
have developed resistance ) whose
progeny again lose the resistance.
Earlier, farmers in general have
ignored this process due to lack of
awareness and fell victim to pink
bollworm attack. During the current
season, however, the National
Seeds Association (NSAI) has taken
up the issue on a war footing and
revived the RIB concept.
“The field staff of various seed
companies has been working
proactively working with the
farmers to impress upon them on
the need to go for RIB and save
their main crop,” said National
Seeds Association of India (NSAI)
president P Prabhakar Rao, who is
also the Chairman and Managing
Director of Nuziveedu Seeds
Limited, the largest cotton seed
company in the country.
“We are also working very closely
with several state agricultural
universities who too have come
to the aid of farmers and we are
happy that the efforts have begun
to yield positive results,” Mr Rao
said and explained: “This is part
14
BioVoiceNews | October 2017
of our multi-pronged campaign,
#SecureFarmer2SecureIndia and
we have made a beginning with
cotton.”
“Compared to last year, the
awareness levels are higher
now and farmers are managing
this problem much better. They
are using pheromones traps to
detect the presence of pink boll
worms early in the season, to
take timely remedial action by
spraying required agrochemicals
as preventive action,” said NSAI
general secretary and seed
technologist ASN Reddy.
Several seed and pesticide
companies have also begun to
distribute pheromone traps as part
of their CSR projects. More than
100,000 traps have already been
pressed into action both by public
and private sector establishments
as a measure for awareness drive
for early detection of PBW attack,
NSAI said.
NSAI has also represented to
the Union Agriculture Ministry
to popularize an Integrated Pest
Management (IPM) programme
which involves crop rotation of
Cotton with other crops, biological
control of insects with the help of