Ecologically based rodent management can help control pests in rural India

Full community engagement, reducing access to food and shelter and direct killing is the best way to manage rodent populations

Genetically modified cowpea clears its first hurdle in Ghana, but there’s a long way to go

GM crops represent a potentially important tool for the country’s food security strategy

Scientists characterise a natural pathogenic fungi to help save eucalyptus forests from devastating pest

Eucalyptus snout beetle can cause great damage, but fungi could be used to develop a bio-pesticide for sustainable forestry

Aphid, thrips threaten vegetable crops, pulses as February temperatures soar across north India

Ideal weather conditions for pest attacks unusually early in the year

Climate change may cause up to 38% decline of low & mid latitude deodar trees

Droughts and heat stress may also cause infestation in trees, research notes

Quelea: Environmentalists protest Kenyan government’s move to poison millions of ‘feathered locusts’

Experts champion mechanical control of the birds & other alternative methods like monitoring their breeding & migratory patterns, …

Earwigs are the hero single mothers of the insect world – and good for your garden too

They are nature’s pest controllers

Call to action: Pest control actors should join hands to curtail harmful impact of rodents on India’s food production

Ecologically based rodent management has great opportunity to be adopted in the states of Madhya Pradesh & Jharkhand

SC directs Centre to submit status report on ban of pesticides

These pesticides have been banned in other countries; but in India, they are being allowed to use & could pose serious health hazards to farmers

Cotton Curse: Pheromone-based mating disruption technology may help control pink bollworm

Experiments show 90% reduction in losses, improved yield

Cotton Curse: Damage by pink bollworm to Bt Cotton worst in two decades

Farmers say damage by pink bollworm worse than American bollworm for which the Bt Cotton hybrid was created  

For Rajasthan farmers, pest attacks mean loss of income, debt burden

Frequency of attacks, increased due to climate change, is severely affecting the yield and meteorically escalating production costs

Warm temperatures for prolonged periods may have led to massive pest attack in Assam

28,000 hectares of paddy crop in 15 districts destroyed by armyworm

Cotton Curse: Bt Cotton losses by pink bollworm pushing farmers to brink of suicide

Part 1: Recurring losses due to pests in North India compounding farmers’ distress, finds DTE ground report 

‘Grains not stored properly in FCI godown, rotting food creating pest hazard’

NGT orders probe into biological hazard at Punjab storage, forms joint panel

Farmers responses over pesticide-use effects cannot be considered scientific, petitioners tell SC

Petitioners request Supreme Court to review and consider banning of 135 more pesticides banned outside India

To protect India’s bees, we need to understand their impact on agricultural practices

 Farmers worry about effect of genetically modified crops on honey bees

Warming temperatures increasing pest attacks, reducing yield, claim Rajasthan farmers

New and wider infestations by pests causing mass destruction of harvest

Cotton Curse: Tired of losses, farmers giving up cotton on a large scale

The production of cotton in Punjab has almost halved in the past decade

Cotton Curse: How pink bollworm developed resistance to Bt Cotton

Entomologists say early and late sowing, long-duration crops and not planting other varieties against advice may have contributed to resistance …

Cotton Curse: No buyers for salvaged produce after pink bollworm wreaks havoc

Labourers refuse to pick leftover crop as yield too low and traders refuse to buy citing poor quality

Ban on pesticides: Plea in Supreme Court alleges restriction on reduced number of chemicals to protect companies

Next hearing on April 28; SC seeks reasons for the decision from Centre

Scientists write to PM against ICAR ‘gag order’ on GM mustard

Health and safety of crops draw concern from scientific community