The Department of Zoology, Punjab Agricultural University (PAU), organized a one day training course on 12.07.2024 “Vertebrate Pest Management” for the farmers of villages Noorpur Bet and Garah, block Mangat and village Mallah, block Jagraon, district Ludhiana. The course was held under the guidance of All India Network Project on Vertebrate Pest Management.
Dr Charanjit Singh Aulakh, Dean, College of Agriculture, stated that trainings helped in extending the role of PAU further and in income enhancement of the farmers.
Dr Shammi Kapoor, Dean, College of Basic Science and Humanities, in his welcome address, emphasized the importance of such training session, highlighting how they played crucial role in equipping the farmers with the necessary knowledge and skills to manage the pest challenges effectively.
Dr MS Malhi, Agricultural Consultant, Member Global Farmer Network, highlighted the necessity of informing and educating the farmers about sustainable pest management practices.
Dr Tejdeep Kaur Kler, Head, Department of Zoology and Course Director, highlighted the importance of farmers’ training on various aspects of vertebrate pest management. She stated that this training course was organized to make the farmers aware of innovative technologies developed so far and to establish a work force to disseminate the developed technologies among farmers. Besides, she gave in-depth knowledge about the role of beneficial birds in agriculture and different methods for their conservation.
Dr BK Babbar, Senior Zoologist (Rodents) and Technical Co-coordinator of the course, stated that higher vertebrate pests like blue bull and wild boar were causing losses in crop fields particularly in villages near waterholes and forests.
During this training course, lectures and practical demonstrations on various technologies for the management of birds, rodents, blue bull and wild boar were given by Dr Tejdeep Kaur Kler, Dr BK Babbar, Dr Manoj Kumar, Dr Nisha Vashishat, and Dr Rajwinder Singh.
Dr Vashishat shared the economic management of pest birds in agriculture.
Dr Kumar discussed the behaviour and management techniques of wild boar and Dr Babbar discussed the behaviour and management of rodent pest and Blue bull.
Dr Rajwinder Singh demonstrated the behavior and management method of rodent pest. Hands-on training session was performed for the demonstration of vertebrate pest management technologies followed by the field visit.
Read more: https://www.pau.edu/index.php?_act=manageEvent&DO=viewEventDetail&dataE=datae&intID=9287
