‘Capacity building of officers to help facilitate farmers’

Event aims to focus on integrated methods to control pest attacks

MULTAN: The Muhammad Nawaz Shareef University of Agriculture Multan (MNS-UAM) organised a capacity building training session for the officers of the agriculture department regarding the monitoring and the management of pink bollworm and whitefly on Sunday. The event was held at the department of entomology and was attended by deputy directors of all the districts that fall under the cotton zone including, Multan, Bahawalpur, Sargodha, Lahore, Dera Ghazi Khan and Sahiwal.

While addressing the participants, MNS-UAM Vice Chancellor Prof Asif Ali said that the purpose of providing training was to improve the capacity building of officers in order to facilitate farmers.

On the occasion, Department of Entomology Chairperson Dr Shafqat Saeed presented an informative lecture regarding whitefly monitoring and management.

He explained different methods, host plants and control measures to control the whitefly population. He focused on integrated methods for controlling whitefly attacks. He also provided information on different insect predators which hunt whiteflies.

Department of Entomology Assistant Professor Dr M Ishtiaq informed the participants about that status of pink bollworm on Bt cotton, according to a survey he conducted.

He said, “We collected cotton samples from different fields; all samples showed a high rate of pink bollworm infestation.”

He suggested that pink bollworm and whitefly attacks could be controlled through community involvement. All stakeholders should play their due role in this regard, he added.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 11^th, 2018.