No abstract

Agriculture is heavily contributing towards the economy of Pakistan. Water deficiency and drought conditions, long duration load shedding issue, poor extension services, absence of land reforms, absence of distribution of certified varieties, high price of fertilizers, deliberate use of adulterated, non-recommended and expired insecticides, non utilization of cultivable waste land, conventional farming practices, indirect access of farmer to main market, absence of ecological based cropping pattern, smuggling of agricultural inputs and outputs, lack of cooperation between agricultural research, education & extension services, absence of crop insurance, depletion of forests, lack of modern post-harvest technologies and disease outbreaks of poultry birds are some of the key issues that are playing a negative role in demotion of agricultural sector in Pakistan. The review article will briefly discuss above mentioned issues and some of the possible remedies under the environment of Pakistanand their adoption to improve the agricultural productivity in the country.

Integrated pest management adoption is quite low around the globe, particularly in developing countries, due to different factors. Here, we examine the factors affecting the intention of Pakistani farmers to adopt integrated pest management practices in vegetable production using a structured questionnaire. We interviewed 301 vegetable growers in Multan, Pakistan. The reliability and validity of the data, along with the underlying relationship between the observed variables, were identified through exploratory factor analysis. The majority of the farmers (79.4%) relied on pesticides for pest control. More than four out of 10 of the respondents (43.8%) reported that okra received the highest application of pesticides followed by potato (24.5%) and cauliflower (17.9%). Integrated pest management was currently non‐existent among the vegetable growers of the study area. The latent factors—“knowledge of the adverse effects of pesticide,” “belief in the efficacy of non‐chemical pest control measures,” “perceived barriers to the adoption of integrated pest management,” “progressive farming approach,” and “intention to adopt integrated pest management”—were subsequently confirmed using confirmatory factor analysis. The structural equation model suggested that the intention to adopt integrated pest management is significantly affected by farmers’ knowledge of the adverse effects of pesticides (β = 0.274, z‐value = 3.082, P = 0.002). An increase in farmers’ awareness of the harmful effects of pesticides could lead to integrated pest management adoption for pest control. The scale for intention to adopt integrated pest management developed in this study can be used in future studies and provide valuable insights to the policymakers for devising integrated pest management adoption campaigns in the study area.

Laboratory experimentations were conducted for the evaluation of contact and repellent activities of acetone based plant extracts of Allium sativum (Garlic), Azadirachta indica (Neem), Citrus limon (Lemon) and Eucalyptus globules (Safaida) against the insect pest of stored grain commodities, Tribolium castaneum.Various concentrations (5, 10 and 15%) of the plant extracts were applied on the filter papers in the bioassay experiments and after the release of 15d old beetles, mortality was evaluated after fixed intervals (24, 48, 72, 96, 120, 144 and 168h). Repellent action was also checked using the area preference method and preference of adult beetles were checked after fixed period (24, 48 and 72h). Contact toxicity experiments revealed that E. globules (9.41%) proved to be more effective followed by A. sativum (9.20%), C. limon (8.39%) and A. indica (7.48%).Repellent action confirmed E. globule (76.29%) to be more potent and A. indica (63.08%), A. sativum (59.62%) and C. limon (50.12%) were least effective, respectively. Results reflected a positive potential of plant extracts as suitable substitute of conventional synthetic insecticides for the management of insect pest attacking stored commodities.

To appraise the effect of drought stress on the foraging behavior (visitation frequency and visitation rate) of insect pollinators and its ultimate impact on reproductive success of canola (Brassica napus L.), an experiment was carried out at the Research Farm of MNSUniversity of Agriculture, Multan, Pakistan. Previously, only a few studies have evaluated drought stress as a predictor of plant-pollinator interactions. Normal irrigated and drought stress plots of canola were separated by a distance of fifteen meters. Normal irrigated plots received recommended number of irrigations (three times) i.e., 1st irrigation at 30 days after germination (DAG), 2nd at flowering, and 3rd at pod setting. However, irrigation was applied only once to drought-stressed plots i.e., 1st irrigation at 30 DAG. Twelve insect species in two orders and five families visited the canola flowers. These floral visitor species were grouped into three categories, i.e., Apis bees (honey bees), non-Apis bees, and flies. The abundance of Apis and non-Apis bees was significantly higher in irrigated plots than in drought plots, while the abundance of flies did not differ significantly in both plots. Stay time of all the floral visitors was significantly higher in drought plots, while the visitation rate was significantly higher in irrigated plots. The interaction between pollination modes (open pollination and self-pollination) and water regimes (normal irrigation and drought stress) was significant for all the reproductive success parameters of canola (silique length and weight, number of seeds per silique, seed weight per silique, number of siliques per plant and fatty acid contents (%) of canola seeds) under normal irrigation regime for free insect visits treatment. Moreover, a variation of 83% to 207% was observed for these parameters between irrigated and drought plots receiving insect pollination (free insect visits) due to higher pollinator abundance and visitation rate in the former ones. However, all the reproductive success parameters did not vary between irrigated and drought plots with no insect pollination (no insect visits, caged treatment). In conclusion, drought stress negatively affected insect pollinators’ foraging behavior, leading to low reproductive success in canola. In the climate change scenario and limited water availability, future studies should consider drought stress for other cross-pollinated crops under varying environments and pollinator fauna.