About the Practice
Detail:

Semi-looper is a major pest destroying the castor crop. It damages the leaves by cutting across the leaves. Patel spreads 1 kg of puffed sorghums on one bigha or 0.25 acres approximately of land around the boundaries of the field for three days to attract the maximum number of birds.The birds come to feed on the sorghums and while doing so they also eat the semi-loopers.


About the Innovator

Knowledge Provider / Innovator: Jayanthibhai Patel
Agro-Ecological Zone: North Gujarat zone (GJ-4)
Address: Mehasana, Gujarat
District: Mehasana
State: Gujarat
PIN Code 384003

Practice Details

Ingredients: Puffed Sorghums


PAS 1:

"Bird's specialization in consuming insects has since long attracted man'sattention, testified by names as fly-eater, fly-catcher, bee-eater, or Culicicapo(mosquito catcher), apivorous (bee-eating, but used for the honey-buzzard), etc.The economic value of these birds has often been discussed (Koningsberger1901-1909; Bartels 1907; Sody 1953), but is far from well understood in tropicalareas such as Indonesia (Kalshoven 1981). It would be convenient to consider allinsect-eating birds as beneficial. For instance, slviftlets devourhugg amounts of flyinginsects, mainly Hymenoptera, amongst which are figwasps, flying termites andants (Becking 1985). Estimates of 5000 kg (ld individuals) of insects, consumeddaily by 4.5 million swiftlets, have been made for Bornean caves (Harrison 1974).Rappard (1948) reported the suppression of a local grasshopper pest in Javanteakforest by purple herons (Ardeapurpurea), consuming htrge numbers of theseinsects. Though local prey concentrations will attract increased numbers of insecteaters, it is uncertain how large the controlling effect in most cases is, and whetherthe predator's voracity can match with the prey's population growth (which isoften fast particularly in monocultures). In this paper, however, rather thanfocusing at one or two predator species, an endeavor is made to elucidate anefficient system of insectivorous birds, which are thought to suppress insectpopulations to harmless level." [vanBalen, Bas. (1989). The role of birds in the biological control of insect pests in Java.]
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/236856893_The_role_of_birds_in_the_biological_control_of_insect_pests_in_Java



GIAN Reference: GIAN/UAL/540 - Practice ID: KNW0010000001249

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