Fruit Fly Control Practices and Losses in Peach Orchards of Swat District, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
Fruit Fly Control Practices and Losses in Peach Orchards of Swat District, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
Arshad Farooq1, Abdul Hassan1, Muhammad Ishaq2 and Asif Nawaz3*
ABSTRACT
Being a pest of quarantine importance, fruit flies have been considered among top ten world’s most severe agriculture pests which cause huge threats worldwide in terms of quantitative and qualitative losses in orchards. In order to assess the losses caused by fruit fly in peach and the control practices adopted against it, a survey was carried out in district Swat. A total of 80 peach growers from four main peach growing tehsils of district Swat (20 sample growers from each tehsil) i.e., Barikot, Kabal, Matta and Khwaza Khela were randomly interviewed. The salient findings of the study revealed that using of pheromone traps is the most key technique adopted by 60% of the sample peach growers for control of fruit fly in peach orchards. Chemical sprays applied by the sample growers on their peach orchards were at an average of 7.75 times. Mean fruit fly losses was noted in the variety of Maria delesia that was 19.97% followed by Indian blood 19.52%, Elberta 16.64%, Suance 14.65%, Flam crest 11%, NJC84 9.05% and Coronetto 7.72% losses were reported by the sample peach growers in the study area. Cleaning of peach orchards from weeds, ploughing, pruning of plants, proper disposal of infected fruits and pheromone traps were the major eco-friendly pest management techniques adopted by the majority of the sample peach growers. High prices of inputs, lack of knowledge, adulteration in pesticides and fruit fly control were the main problems faced by the sample growers in the study area. The study suggested that agricultural departments and other private organizations involved in agricultural development may organize awareness and training programs in the context of integrated pest management techniques (IPM), motivate the farmers to adopt pheromone traps, develop fruit flies control techniques, control the prices and quality of agricultural inputs and also provide subsidy on inputs, develop pest resistant peach varieties, ensure the availability of advanced fruit fly traps.
To share on other social networks, click on any share button. What are these?
