Rayagada: Light trap pest killer machines are used in farms for insect and pest control without using insecticides and pesticides.
The Centre had offered to supply 398 light trap machines to the farmers of Rayagada district costing nearly Rs 9.5 crore under the ‘Rashtriya Krishi Vikash Yojana’. But nothing was done regarding this after March this year.
Around 20 per cent of crops in our country are damaged by insects and pests every year. The National Centre for Integrated Pest Management had developed the light traps to check this menace in an eco-friendly way.
Sources said the ultraviolet ray enabled machines were to be supplied to farmers in the first week of July, and would have been placed in farms to attract pests and trap them inside a specific chamber.
The farmers would then send a pic of the trapped pests to agricultural scientists and technical experts through WhatsApp or email for research.
The scheme planned to deploy 14,820 light trap machines in the farms of 2,040 state panchayats, a letter to the Agriculture Department dated March 15 revealed.
Reacting to this, the Rayagada district Deputy Director of Agriculture Krushna Chandra Singh said, “The insect and pest control research project will be implemented soon.”
ABOUT LIGHT TRAPS
Light traps, with or without ultraviolet light, attract certain insects. Light sources may include fluorescent lamps, mercury-vapour lamps, black lights, or light-emitting diodes. Designs differ according to the behaviour of the insects being targeted. Light traps are widely used to survey nocturnal moths. Total species richness and abundance of trapped moths may be influenced by several factors such as night temperature, humidity and lamp type. Grasshoppers and some beetles are attracted to lights at a long range but are repelled by it at short range. Farrow’s light trap has a large base so that it captures insects that may otherwise fly away from regular light traps. Light traps can attract flying and terrestrial insects, and lights may be combined with other methods too.
PNN
