TNAU trains Agricultural Officers on Production Technologies of Biocontrol Agents

Biocontrol agents are natural enemies or competitors of crop pests. The Centre for Protection Studies of Tamil Nadu Agricultural University is actively involved in the ecofriendly management of both native and invasive pests, diseases and nematodes across the state with more emphasis on biological control agents.

To expose the Agricultural Officers who are directly involved in the production of biocontrol agents, the Centre for Plant Protection Studies is organizing a five days refresher course ‘Hands on Training on the Production Technologies of Biocontrol Agents of Crop Pests, Diseases and Nematodes” to the officials involved in the biocontrol agents production from September 27th to October 1st with the financial assistance from the Department of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Government of Tamil Nadu.

Twenty three Agricultural Officers across Tamil Nadu are participating in this program. The trainees will learn many new technologies by practicing the methods and updated procedures at the Departments of Agricultural Entomology, Plant Pathology and Nematology during the period.

Kalyanasundaram, Dean (Agriculture), TNAU, Coimbatore inaugurated the training program and released the training manual.  In his inaugural address, he emphasized the importance of biocontrol agents in managing the native and invasive pests.  He also focused the need for biocontrol agents with examples of classical success in papaya and sugarcane woolly aphids.