Modified tree trunk banding technology for mango mealybug, Drosicha mangiferae (Green) management: A techno-economic analysis

Abstract

Mango mealybug Drosicha mangiferae (Green) is a univoltine seasonal pest, affecting a series of trees from December to April in north Indian conditions. Once it crawls up the tree in the season, insecticidal control becomes cumbersome and costly therefore tree trunk banding with plastic, supplemented with a sticky barrier was recommended long back for the management of this pest. Owing to various factors, this old technology is obsolete now and many farmers have shifted to insecticide dust-based trunk banding which is costly and environmentally harmful. We modified the old technology, replaced the materials and their specification and worked out its techno-economic studies. Modified banding technology has been found highly effective, its tree application rate is very fast; a team of two persons can apply the band to more than 100 trees in a day at a total cost of Rs 1750 whereas, in the old method of banding, it comes around Rs 4775 and that of in dust application, around Rs 2375 which ecologically also costly.