Eco-friendly pest control a boon for veg farmers

Farmers in a few remote villages of Muktagachha and Sadar upazilas of the district are now benefiting from an environment-friendly and less costly pest control device called Sex Pheromone Trap.

"I cultivated bottle gourd on 60 decimals of land last year and spent only Tk 500 for pest control using Sex Pheromone Trap whereas earlier pest control using chemical pesticides cost several times higher," Ziaur Rahman, 35, a farmer of Binnakuri, said during this correspondent's visit to the remote village in Muktagachha upazila.

“I got better production and harvested the produce worth Tk 60 thousand,” Ziaur said.

His neighbour Abdul Gafur said he and 22 farmers at the village are beneficiaries of the bio-technology and many others in the area are also interested to use the method.

Similar project is also running at Japarkanda in Austodhar union of Mymensingh Sadar, said Md Anwarul Islam, project manager of SEBA Limited, a co-facilitator of Katalyst that introduced Sex Pheromone Trap under its Integrated Pest Management project in Bangladesh a few years ago.

“We got a good profit using the method in vast cauliflower fields of Japarkanda this year," said Rashidul Islam, a farmer of the village.

Katalyst is co-founded by the UK Government, Swiss Development Cooperation and Danida, and its projects are implemented by Swisscontact under the Ministry of Commerce, Bangladesh, said Nadia Iqbal, Katalyst's principal communications consultant.

A Sex Pheromone Trap emits the smell of insects' sex pheromones that attracts male or female insects, leading to their getting trapped and death, he said.