Vegetable Pests and Farmer Practices

Vegetables are of good nutritional value with significant potential as income-generating crop and as supplements to diet consisting mostly carbohydrates. Despite the importance of vegetables there are different production constraints wherever they are grown in the country. The attack by a variety of insect pests is a major factor restraining increased production of vegetables and is the main cause of low quality and yield. Because of high vulnerability of vegetables to insects, farmers lean to apply chemicals for saving these most perishable agri-products. Farmers adopt different plant protection strategies which mainly focus on over and heavy use of pesticides on these crops. As the pesticide applications are repeated at three days interval therefore there is much chance that the application of pesticides will not only damage the environment but will also incurs severe health concerns on the end consumers.

Muhammad Shakeel is a young Entomologist doing his PhD in Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, China. He received his M. Phil in Agri. Entomology from the University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, Pakistan in 2011. He has also worked as a Research Associate in one of the HEC funded project in the University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, Pakistan.