MULTAN, Jan 18: Punjab’s first public sector biological control laboratory for mango is all set to become operational in Multan during the current month after resolution of the issue regarding its site, an official says.

Fruit and Vegetable Development Programme (FVDP) Multan deputy director Khalid Mehmood told this agency on Thursday that experts from Centre for Applied Biology International (Cabi) and officials executing the FVDP had selected a training hall at the agricultural farm of the agriculture (extension) department to set up the lab.

Mr Mehmood said the biological technique would not only help tackle fruit fly but would also save the fruit from pesticide residual effect.

“Earlier, we used to get predators from Cabi Rawalpindi, however, with the establishment of the lab, we will be able to prepare the predators `Tryblliographa’ in Multan to kill fruit fly.”

Dr Khalid, who himself is a horticulturist, has received training to run the laboratory.

He said the equipment had reached Multan and hoped that the facility would become operational in the third or last week of January to facilitate farmers at their doorstep.

The FVDP is also pursuing another programme simultaneously to tackle fruit fly problem and experiments showed they were able to bring the incidence of fruit fly in mango from 31 per cent to just 0.4 per cent. Three techniques were applied at as many 150-acre orchards separately but simultaneously, including male annihilation programme, another technique to kill female fruit fly and mangoes’ exposure to sunlight and they all showed fruitful results.

“We are planning to replicate this technique at orchards spread over 1,000 acres each in Multan and Rahimyar Khan next year,” Khalid said. — APP