Perching method gaining popularity in Patuakhali
An environment-friendly pest control method called 'perching' is gradually gaining popularity among farmers, who are finding the method suitable especially for rice fields.
Perching is really quite an easy method to control harmful insects in a crop field and there is essentially no cost for farmers. As part of the method, bamboo poles or horizontal stems or branches of trees are set up at regular intervals in a crop field so pest-eating birds can easily alight or roost on those.
During a recent visit in Badorpur, Lawkathi, Shialli, Moukaran, Itbaria, Auliapur and Kalikapur villages of Sadar upazila, this correspondent saw many birds alighting on the perches set up by farmers in their Aman rice fields.
Khalilur Rahman, a farmer from Badorpur village in Sadar upazila, said that after planting seeds in his one-acre Aman field about two months ago, he set up at least 15 tree branches as perches for the birds and he has been getting desired results ever since.
"The process is easy and cheap. Bug-eating birds like black drongo magpie, martin, owl, sparrow and parakeet sit on the perches and they fly off from there to eat different types of harmful insects like grasshopper," he also said.
Nurul Islam, another farmer from the same village, said, "We used to apply different types of insecticides to keep insect pests off our crop land. But now we are using the environment-friendly perching method. The process hardly costs anything."
"The chemicals we had been using were expensive too," said farmer Rahmat Ali from Shialli village.
Many of the farmers this correspondent spoke with said that the perching method has high benefits for farmers as it not only reduces their cost of production by eliminating pesticides expenses, but it also enables them grow chemical-free safe crops for the nation.
Jahidul Islam Shoyeb, sub-assistant agricultural extension officer in Patuakhali Sadar upazila, said farmers are now saving around Tk 1,500 that they used to spend on different chemical pesticides for each acre of land.
So, "we have been motivating farmers to apply perching method in their rice fields and they are showing an increased interest towards the method," he added.
Deputy Director of Department of Agricultural Extension in Patuakhali Hridoyeshwar Datta, said harmful insects are usually found on the upper portion of rice plants and birds can easily prey on those by targeting the insects from the perches in the crop field.
He also said that about 60 percent farmers in the area are currently using the perching method and they were working on to motivate the rest of the farmers take advantage of the method.
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