Impact of dissemination and adoption of insecticide resistance management (IRM) strategies against cotton pests in South 24 Parganas district of West Bengal

The farmers’ participatory window based insecticide resistance management (IRM) strategies for cotton pests were implemented in 2004–05 in 5 villages to 15 villages in 2010–11 in 15 villages of South 24 Parganas district of West Bengal. Overall bollworm infestation of cotton was minimized in both IRM and non-IRM villages. The average population of sucking pests was always comparatively less in IRM villages than non-IRM villages. Eco-friendly pesticides were used in IRM villages resulting in more number of natural enemies. The number of sprays was reduced from 2.60 to 1.40 in IRM villages in comparison to 3.91–4.10 in non-IRM villages during the project period of 2004–05 to 2010–11. The project farmers spent less average expenditure (945.85/ha) and realized more average net profit (3,284.28/ha) than non-project farmers. Awareness has been developed among IRM farmers on the need and use of eco-safe insecticides and botanicals to create favourable environment for increasing the natural population of beneficial insects in their field. Now IRM farmers have the ability to identify both the harmful as well as beneficial insects in their fields. The strategies of IRM were also adopted in cotton surrounding rabi-summer okra, chilli, tomato, sunflower and green gram.