Integrated pest management for onion in India

Abstract

Onion is one of the major commercial vegetables in India, and the main limiting factor for higher production of this crop is the incidence of pests and diseases. To reduce the pesticide treadmill, efforts were made to evaluate five different onion IPM modules at Tamil Nadu Agricultural University in India. These include the bio-intensive module comprising of selection of healthy seed bulbs, bulb treatment with Pseudomonas fluorescens and Trichoderma viride, soil amendment with biopesticides and biofertilizers, foliar application of biopesticides, and need based application of chemical pesticides. These were found to be effective in checking onion pests and diseases. The onion IPM was further fine-tuned with additional IPM components, barrier crop of maize and pheromone and sticky traps. It was demonstrated in larger fields in farm holdings of Tamil Nadu under the Integrated Pest Management Collaborative Research Support Program (IPM CRSP) and now, IPM Innovation Lab of USAID during 2009-2013 through technology transfer programs viz., demonstrations, field days, radio, farm visits, publications and others. Impact assessment on onion IPM package revealed reduced production costs, increased bulb yield, and higher economic returns.