Sustainable Agriculture: Promoting Border Crops and Trap crops
This activity is being implemented in all villages covering 600 hectares of land in each village every year. Border crop consists of 4 rows of pearl millet mixed with cow pea sown around the main field. As pearl millet grows taller than groundnut it works as a barrier to ward off the invasion of thrips which are the carriers of deadly PSND virus, affecting groundnut.
Cow pea acts as a trap crop for Red Hairy Caterpillar (RHC) which causes considerable damage to the groundnut crop. When the presence of RHC is noticed, the control measures can be taken up only on border crop and not on the entire field, thus saving the cost of plant protection.
(pheromone traps & color boards).
Demonstrations
on installation pheromone traps and color boards have been taken up to monitor
the incidence of pests and to trap them before they are multiplied. 1920 farmers
have been mobilized to install pheromone traps, in their 4020 ha of farm lands.
The total cost of pheromone traps per ha is Rs. 250/-. Beneficiary contribution
is Rs. 50/ and remaining Rs200/ is paid as an incentive by the organization.1890
farmers have been mobilized to install white and yellow boards in their 3772 ha
of farm land of them 394 farmers belongs to SC/ST communities. The total cost of
color boards is Rs.75/- ha.
