Farmers choice of pesticides for the management of whitefly of cotton in Punjab, Pakistan

Abstract

Cotton, popularly known as white gold, is the king of natural fiber and an important cash crop of Pakistan which earns foreign exchange up to 11.7% and 2.9% of GDP. The present study was carried out in cotton growing areas of four divisions of Punjab to determine the choice of cotton growers for the selection of pesticides for the management of whitefly. The data of hot spots of whitefly were recorded twice a week from April to October during 2015, 2016 and 2017 by using the standard pest scouting method. The study revealed that an increase of 16.09% hot spots of whitefly was detected in 2017 as compared to previous two consecutive years (2015 and 2016). Regarding farmers’ choice for selection of pesticides used to control whitefly, the farmers used Imidacloprid, Acetamiprid, Buprofezin, Clothinadin, Diafenthiuron, Flonicamid, Matrine, Pyriproxifen, Pymetrozine, Spirotetramat. The comparison of three years indicated that maximum farmers preferred to spray Pyriproxifen on the hot spots of cotton whitefly followed by Buprofezin, Acetamiprid and Diafenthiuronwhile Clothinadin and Matrine were used by the minimum numbers of farmers. The use of these insecticides by the farmers during the three years was non-significant. The farmers preferred these pesticides being of third generation, IGRs, Neonicotinoids, environment friendly to human health and safer to natural enemies of whitefly