Now, a ₹20 trap to save cotton from pink bollworms

As the dreaded pink bollworm pest starts developing resistance to the Bt cottonseed across various parts of the country, a low-cost pheromone trap that helps curb the spread of the pest is seen coming to the rescue of beleaguered cotton growers.

A pheromone trap with a chemical fomulation, consisting of gossyplure and some other natural ingredients, is set to hit markets soon in key growing regions of the fibre crop, where the pink bollworm has surfaced in recent years. It has been developed by the Nagpur-based Central Institute for Cotton Research (CICR), under the aegis of the Indian Council for Agricultural Research (ICAR), with Innovative Biosciences Pvt Ltd.

“We, at CICR, made a new formulation by using a few natural ingredients to enhance the effect of the lure. The lure has a long-term effect and lasts for about 60-70 days, if not more, depending on temperatures during the period. The formulation is effective and inexpensive,” said KR Kranthi, Director, CICR.

The trap and the lure cost ₹20 plus taxes and a farmer ideally has to deploy about 40 such traps per acre for effective control of the pink bollworm. The solution, developed last year, has been tested at CICR farms and validated extensively.

Innovative Biosciences Pvt Ltd, a Nagpur-based manufacturer of Bt seed diagnostic kits and insect traps, is manufacturing the pheromone trap and the formulated lures. “We will be launching the pheromone traps in pink bollworm-affected States in the first week of next month,” said Satish Rehpadde, Director, Innovative Biosciences. “The demand is huge,” he adds.

Gossyplure, a pheromone, attracts the male moths of the pink bollworm. When set up in cotton fields infested with pink bollworm, the trap competes with the female pink bollworm moths for the male’s attention, disrupting mating and curbing population growth of the dreaded pest.

The male moth lured by the pheromone, once trapped into the funnel-shaped trap, gets killed in the polythene cover attached to it after two days for want of food, Reaphade said.

Bollgard II, the second generation transgenic or Bt cottonseed, introduced by Monsanto, was supposed to be resistant to pink bollworm. But, has it has, of late, developed resistance to the pest, especially in major cotton producing States such as Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Karnataka, inflicting major losses on growers in recent years. CICR estimates that at least 20 lakh hecatres in Gujarat and about 6-8 lakh hectares in Maharasthra, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka have been impacted by the pink bollworm.

While pheromone traps are being used by growers in some areas to curb pink bollworm, they were found to be ineffective in reducing boll damage at the recommended mass trapping set-up of 10-20 traps per hectare. Also, the lures used in the traps were effective only for 10-20 days, Kranthi said. Besides, they were priced at ₹50-60 a trap.

“We felt that ... mass trapping with long-term efficacy of 2-3 months would take care of the worms during the season without the need for frequent replacement of lures. Therefore, we improvised an existing formulation to make it cheaper and more effective through slow-release to extend the efficacy for 2-3 months. The trap design was slightly modified to suit proper, slow dispensing, of the chemical formulation,” Kranthi explained.

“Our basic objective was to lower the cost of pheromone traps and extend the field efficacy of the lures for a longer period for sustainable long-term trapping, so that these can be used for mass trapping,” Kranthi added.

In the ongoing kharif planting season, cotton acreage has suffered a setback as the increasing incidence of pest attacks such as pink bollworm and white fly have made farmers shift to others crop such as pulses and maize.

The acreage under cotton has dropped by about a tenth to 102.78 lakh hectares, as on August 28, in comparison with the 112.68 lakh hectares under the crop last year.

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