The major problem faced by the farmers for low productivity of crops in Kerala is the crop loss caused by the attack of various pests and diseases in cultivated crops.
It is known that the incidence of pest and diseases varies with the weather, soil and ecology and a clear understanding of this variation is inevitable for providing proper advisory.
By the continuous monitoring of the pest situation and weather parameters, it is possible to forecast the incidence of pests and diseases. This will help the farmers in taking up prophylactic management measures even before pest population crosses the threshold level.
Along with these farmers can be advised to improve the plant health status based on soil nutrient status so that the requirement for chemical based pest management can be further reduced. The Department of Agriculture had formulated a project “Crop Health Management” for filling the gaps in sound crop health management and to adopt scientific plant health management. Plant Health Clinics were also established under the scheme for providing adequate diagnostic and advisory facilities to farmers on time and also to facilitate eco friendly and scientific pest management strategies to increase production and productivity. A Plant Health Clinic was established at Krishibhavan, Vadakkenchery in Alathur Block of Palakkad district during 2013-14. In the initial phase the functioning of the Plant Health Clinic was mainly on pest and diseases diagnosis but when the pest surveillance progressed the functions of the Clinic extended beyond diagnosis to advisories and various field activities for the benefit of farming community.
The Clinic is now promoting various sustainable technologies such as Ecological Engineering, Agro Ecosystem Analysis, Onfarm production of biocontrol agents etc along with regular pest and diseases diagnosis and surveillance based advisories. The activities and outreach activities of the Plant Health Clinic are acting as a total solution which strengthens the whole plant health system.
(Resmi M.V., Agricultural Officer, Krishibhavan, Vadakkenchery, Kerala)
