The Department of Agriculture (DA) on Wednesday urged Western Visayas farmers to use biocontrol agents to eliminate pests and diseases after the region suffered from outbreaks of armyworms early this year.
DA Region 6 Crop Protection Center (RCPC) Officer in Charge Ryan Rasgo said they have prepared proactive preventive measures against pests and diseases incidence as the wet cropping season has already started.
“While the use of chemical pesticides is recommended during pest outbreak, the DA-RCPC is also urging farmers to use bio-control agents, such as trichogramma and metarhizium, if regular pest incidence occurred,” the DA said in a news statement on Wednesday.
The DA urged farmers to immediately report pests incidence or outbreaks to their respective local farmer technicians, barangay committee chairman on agriculture or farmers’ association president for prompt action.
“A report shall be submitted within two days to the agricultural extension worker who will validate the report,” the DA said. “The municipal agriculturist will approve and endorse the incident report to the provincial agriculturist and to the DA-RCPC for immediate action,” the DA added.
Vicente Nim, chief of the DA-Region 6 Integrated Laboratories, said local agriculture offices in the region should also closely monitor the incidence of pest outbreaks, especially this wet season.
“We encourage our local agriculture offices to update their municipal pest profiles annually so that the RCPC could give a pest advisory to our farmers. The RCPC is devising strategies on how to provide early warning and quick responses to protect our crop producers,” Nim said.
During a recent workshop, Rasgo and other officials of DA-Region 6 taught local farmer technicians on how to fill up and analyze data on rapid crop health during pest outbreak situation.
In January this year there was an outbreak of armyworms in two barangays in San Jose, Antique, which affected a total of 237.6 hectares of rice fields, according to the DA. However, the outbreak was immediately contained through the intervention of the local government unit in coordination with the DA-RCPC, the DA added.
The DA said Antique and Capiz are among the two highest provinces with the most number of pest incidence.
Jasper Emmanuel Y. Arcalas & Rikka Alyssa D. Daquipil