Biocontrol and utilization of insects for North East India

North- East region of India has rich biodiversity of life and natural resources. Modern agricultural practices have established a fact that excessive and indiscriminate use of synthetic inputs including insecticides, fungicides, weedicides, fertilizers etc., have endangered the biodiversity, bio security, natural resources and human well being. Biological control is the utilization of one living organism to control another. This is an age-old practice and since the time immemorial, man is using cats to control rats. Similarly, to control insect pests also, biological method is being successfully implemented almost for three decades. This method is safe, eco-friendly, cheap and long lasting. To overcome the hazards associated with chemical pesticides, the use of biocontrol agent is increasingly being adopted. A great deal of knowledge has been gathered on the use of biocontrol agent for the management of pest and diseases. Biocontrol agents have offered some realistic alternatives to chemical pesticides when used as part of an ecologically based integrated pest management or area-wide pest management strategy. Great successes have been made by the farmers in India by adopting the biocontrol-based technologies. Biocontrol is aiming to create a platform for national researchers to project their results, ideas or concepts on how to integrate more and more biocontrol methods, technologies or products into the existing pest and disease management programmes. Also, there is urgent need to address the challenges of invasive insect pests such as Fall Army Worm in Maize, Rugose Spiralling Whitefly in Coconut etc., through biological control as a component of IPM. In this book, several such interventions are given inform of various chapters which will be of immense use improving the productivity and profitability of North-East region crops commodities through biological control. In this endeavour, useful information has been generated on identification of bioagent, cutting edge technology to workers already engaged in production of bio-agents, mass production of biological control agents, biocontrol of rugose white fly through biological control, biocontrol of Fall Army Worm in North-East region and collection and utilization of edible insect from various research institutions and SAUs of the country. Earnest efforts have therefore, been made to compile information on identification of bioagent, mass production of bioagent and biocontrol of pests in a systematic manner, grouped in different chapters and presented in the form of a book entitled “Biological control of pests in agriculture crops of North-East India”. This publication contains excellent colored photographs depicting salient identification of bioagent, mass production of bioagent and biocontrol of pests in field conditions so as to update the knowledge of extension agencies and farmers.