Trap crops in insect pest management


Trap crops are the plant stands that are grown to attract insects or other organisms to protect target crops from pest attack. Protection may be achieved either by preventing the pests from reaching the crop or by concentrating them in certain part of the field where they can economically be destroyed.

The principle of trap cropping rests on the fact that virtually all pests show a distinct preference to certain crop stage. Manipulation of stand in time and space so that attractive host plants are offered at critical time in pests and the crop phenology leads to the concentration of the pests at the desired site, the crop.

Farmers are being motivated to utilize trap cropping because of the difficulties in cropping with the pest situations in other ways. Some times the cost of chemical pesticides and the number of treatments required is so high that more economical ways have to be developed, additionally, the pests have often evolved resistance to commonly used pesticides, which requires some alternative control strategies..................Read more

 

Source: The Hindu


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