MULTAN: Punjab Agriculture Department has decided to prefer Integrated Pest Management (IPM) technology to control pests and apply pesticides only as a last resort.
The decision was taken at a meeting chaired by Additional Secretary Abdur Rahman Gondal which discussed different ways to control pests for improvement in production and quality of different crops, says a release issued by the media liaison unit of Punjab Agriculture Department, Multan, here on Friday. Officials informed that reduction in application of pesticides would improve environment and minimise the risk of human being contracting diseases.
They said that the Punjab government has already started implementing off-season pest management plan to control pests well before the commencement of next cotton season so that farmers could harvest good production in 2017.
Officials were working on the plan day and night at all the laboratories of Agriculture Department and establishment of 45 demonstration plots in Punjab would speed up proceedings further, the release said.
Meanwhile, Secretary Agriculture Muhammad Mahmood has instructed agriculture officials to speed up proceedings on the matter. He said that farmers have been advised to plough their fields to destroy cotton sticks till Jan 15.
Officials said that remains of cotton should be sold to brick kiln owners so that pests, eggs and pupae inside it be killed. They said that remains of cotton crop should be destroyed far away from cotton growing areas.
Stakeholders were also being advised to bury the waste accumulated at the cotton ginning factories while farmers asked to plough their empty fields to expose pests hidden in soil so that birds and animals could eat them.
