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HYDERABAD, Jan 17: A 12-day national congress of 57 integrated pest management (IPM) facilitators of Sindh will be held from Jan 19 at Islamabad to review the performance of farmers field schools, plan future IPM programmes, improve facilitation work, and evolve concepts of monitoring and evaluation.
This was announced by the directorate of agriculture information, Sindh, Hyderabad, on Friday.
The objective of the IPM programme is to ensure rational use of pesticides, conserve natural predators and parasites, minimize risk of health hazards in the farming community, minimize growing pesticides residues in the food chain, and environmental conditions in the agriculture sector.
The agriculture department said that under an IPM programme, 98 farmers field schools were established in Sindh, 57 facilitators were trained and 2,525 farmers imparted practical training in integrated pest management of their crops in Khairpur, Sukkur, Naushahro Feroze, Nawabshah, Sanghar, Hyderabad, and Mirpurkhas districts during the years 2001 and 2002, it claimed.
It further said that the IPM programme was gaining popularity among farmers as it was aimed at not only rationalizing the use of pesticides but also at maintaining production levels and increasing farmers’ profits.
It is planned that the programme would be extended for another five years and 840 farmers field schools would be established in which about 100,000 farmers would be provided season-long practical training.
Under the IPM programme, the department said, a pilot project for pesticides-risk reduction in women had also been launched in Khairpur district during 2002, in which 14 women farmers field schools had been established with 28 women facilitators.
In the project, women farmers are being trained on how to protect themselves from harmful effects of pesticides.
Besides Pakistan, the programme is being implemented in China, Bangladesh, Vietnam, and India, under the coordination of the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO).
In all these countries, farmers are using ever-increasing amount of highly toxic chemicals to control pests in cotton crops.
The FAO has evolved the effective method of “Farmers Field School” to enable farmers to make wiser decisions about crop management, particularly application of toxic pesticides.
POSITION HOLDERS: The University of Sindh on Friday announced the names of students securing top positions in the faculty of natural science.
Miss Jamiat Khatoon has been declared as securing top position in the faculty in B.Sc. (Hons) part-III, electronics, (2000), Miss Quratul Ain in B.Sc. (Hons), part-III, telecommunications (2001), Ahmed Ali in M.Sc. (final) pass-side, chemistry (2000) and Mohammad Aslam in M.Sc. (final) pass-side, fresh water biology (2001).
BHITSHAH: The DCO has directed officials concerned to complete the beautification work of Bhitshah without any delay.
He was presiding over a meeting at the Bhitshah Rest House here on Thursday.
The meeting, which was attended by the chief administrator, Sindh Auqaf, executive engineer, buildings, executive engineer, highways, DDO, revenue, and other officials, reviewed the beautification programme, which had already been approved by the authority concerned.
