HOST DIVERSITY AND DAMAGE ASSESSMENT OF MEALYBUG IN BANGLADESH

Abstract

The study was conducted in 30 upazilla of 10 selected major crop growing districts of Bangladesh during the period from January to May 2017 to find out the present status and diversity of mealybug pest, their risks and management options. The data were collected through interview of 300 crop growing farmers considering 10 farmers from each upazilla and 100 farmers participated in focus group discussion (FGD). The data were analyzed using computer program SPSS 20.0 version. The field study that was conducted among 300 farmers, majority(82%) was male farmers, while only 18% farmers were female. Among them 106 farmers (35.21%) were field crop farmers, whereas 26.16% farmers (78) were vegetable growers, whereas 20.72% farmers (62) were fruit growers and the lowest proportion 17.9% farmers (54) were flower growers. About 95% of them (286) responded about mealybug infestation in their crop field.Most (56.8%) of the farmers reported cotton as a major field crop host of mealybug. Most (46.11%) of the farmers (138) reported that the durba grass was infested in the field by mealybug. Among different vegetables, 51.03% farmers (153) reported mealybug incidence occurred in papaya.In terms of fruit plants, jackfruit, mango and guava were infested severely as reported by 96.2%, 95.5% and 93.3% farmers, respectively.In case of forest tree, most (51.57%) of the farmers (155) reported that the sisso tree was infested by mealybug.In case of flower plant, 47.9% of the farmers reported that the china rose was mostly infested flower plant in the field by mealybug.All of the 300 farmers took action for controlling mealybug.About 97.08% of the farmers (291) sprayed insecticides on their plants to control mealybug, removing weeds, hand picking, soap water, IPM also used as control option. Maximum 88.92% farmers (267) used fighter as an effective insecticide, several insecticides like malathion, ethrin, imidachloprid, darsban, sumithion, native, mipsin, ripcord, cypermethrin and aktarawere also used for controlling of mealybug.