Severity of white grub and farmers management practices in Shyangja district.

Pokhrel, M. R., R. B. Thapa, C. K. Mandal and Y. D. GC. 2007. IAAS Research Advances Vol. 2. Institute of Agriculture and Animal Sciences, Rampur, Chitwan, Nepal. pp. 103-109.

Keywords: Syngja district, white grub severity, farmers management practices

A field survey was conducted to document the white grub problem and farmers' management practices randomly selecting 50 farmers in Putalibazaar and Phaparthum areas of Shyanja district in 2003. From the study, white grub was found to be the second most important soil pest next to red ant, attacking almost all the crops and causing 12% to 60% losses. Farmers used insecticides, like BHC, DDT but were unable to control the pest. The majority of the farmers had adopted traditional farming system with the use of botanicals, local varieties, local tools and equipments but did not completely control grub species. Thus, white grub management practices were based on hit and trail basis. None of the farmers had the idea that the adult of the grub is beetle and it can fly and feed the leaves of plants. The overall survey study revealed that the farmers were unaware about life cycle and biology, the damaging grub species.