Rice (Oryza sativa L) is the predominant food for nearly half of the world’s population supplying nearly 31 per cent calories to Indian diet (Rani et al 2006). One of the important limiting factors in the cultivation of rice is its insect pests. The major pests of rice are rice brown plant hopper, Nilaparvata lugens (Stal), white-backed plant hopper, Sogatella furcifera (Horvath), green leaf hopper, Nephotettix virescens (Dist), yellow stem borer, Scirpophaga incertulas (Walker), rice leaf folder, Cnaphalocroci smedinalis (Guenee) and rice bug, Leptocorisa oratorius (Fabricius). Among them rice leaf folder and rice stem borer cause considerable damage to the rice crop (Upamanya et al 2013). The abundant and imbalance use of chemicals reduces the soil fertility, induce acidification and also pollute the environment. Integrated pest management (IPM) is one of the eco-friendly approaches which can be utilized to control the non-judicious use of insecticides to control rice insect pests (Singh et al 2018, Trivedi and Ahuja 2011). ICAR- Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Tirunelveli, Tamil Nadu demonstrated the integrated pest and disease management technologies in paddy cultivation in farmers’ fields.

Frontline demonstration (FLD) is the concept evolved by Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) with the objective of demonstrating newly released varieties and technologies in the farmers’ fields in order to show the production potential of a particular variety or technology to the specific agro-climatic conditions. Demonstrations on integrated pest and disease management in paddy were laid out by ICAR-Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Tirunelveli, Tamil Nadu during rabi season 2018-19 in 15 selected farmers’ fields at Velayuthapuram village of Kadaiyanallur block, Tamil Nadu. Each demonstration was conducted in an area of 0.4 ha and adjacent to the farmers’ fields in which the crop was cultivated with farmers’ practice/variety. Scientific interventions under FLDs were taken as mentioned in Table 1. The selected progressive farmers were trained on all scientific paddy cultivation aspects before starting of demonstrations. The observations were recorded from recommended practices (IPDM) and farmers’ practice (non-IPDM). The data on stem borer infestation were recorded at vegetative stage as dead heart and total tillers and per cent incidence was worked out. Similarly white ear and panicle bearing tillers were recorded near maturity of crop and per cent white ear infestation was worked out. Similarly incidence of leaf folder, gall midge and blast damage was recorded from 10 randomly selected hills from each plot. For this, total number of leaves per hill and folded leaves was recorded and per cent incidence was worked out. The demonstrated fields were regularly monitored and periodically observed by the scientists of the KVK. At the time of harvest, yield data were collected from both the demonstrations as well as farmers’ practice.

The data on the damage due to pests and diseases are presented in Table 2. The results show that lower damage of stem borer (6.5%), leaf folder (7.3%) and gall midge (5.4%) was recorded in IPDM demonstration plots compared to farmers’ practice. Observations on diseases revealed that lower blast disease incidence (5.1%) was recorded in IPDM demonstration plots compared to farmer’s practice. Similarly higher population of natural enemies (3-6/hill) was recorded in IPDM plots. The non-IPDM practice (farmers’ practice) recorded a higher pest and disease damage of stem borer (15.4%), leaf folder (17.2%), gall midge (11.8%) and blast (18.9%) and lower population of natural enemies (1-2/hill). The findings of the present study are in line with the findings of Singh et al (2017) and Kumar et al (2020). Data on the effect of IPDM practices on the yield of paddy are presented in Table 3. The adoption of IPDM practices recorded the higher grain yield of 5.41 tonnes/ha as compared to framers’ practice (4.73 tonnes/ha) with a yield advantage of 14.37 per cent. The higher net return and B-C ratio of Rs 37,040/ha and 1.87 respectively were recorded under IPDM practices (Table 4). The findings of the present study are in line with the findings of Katti et al (2000), Prajapati et al (2013), Samiayyan et al (2010), Saravanakumar (2020) and Sehgal et al (2001).

The results of the present study indicate that adoption of integrated pest and disease management practices effectively reduced the pest population in paddy fields and considerably increased the natural enemies in the paddy ecosystem. The farmers were satisfied with the IPDM technologies applied in rice which increased yield and reduced the requirement of chemical pesticides and fungicides with better control of pest and diseases.

References