Sridevi Annapurna Singh, Director, CSIR-CFTRI, has said that 12 to 16 million tons of foodgrains is lost every year in India and highlighted the need for adopting latest technologies for protecting grain such as wheat, paddy/rice, maize, etc., from being damaged by pests.
She was speaking after inaugurating a two-day stakeholders workshop on grain storage and pest management organised in collaboration with UPL Ltd., Mumbai, by CSIR- CFTRI, Mysuru, here recently. Around 80 participants, including farmers, grain storage and other industry personnel, research scholars and professionals attended.
Dr. Singh released a compendium on ‘Biology of stored product insects and their management’.
Speakers from representative organisations presented technical lectures on the preservation, fumigation, and organic protection of foodgrains. The lectures were followed by practical demonstrations on effective grain fumigation as well as controlled atmosphere (CA) storage techniques for the benefit of farmers and grain storage agencies.
Prakash M. Halami, Chief Scientist and Head, Food Protectants and Infestation Control Department, CFTRI, talked about the objectives and significance of the workshop and future challenges in pest management.
FCI’s role in food security
Ravi Kumar Sinha, Deputy General Manager (QC), Food Corporation of India (FCI), New Delhi, spoke about the role of FCI in food storage and management and explained the current grain preservation practices in the corporation. He assured encouragement and required assistance from FCI for the trial of new storage methods at its facilities.
In addition, the use of phosphine as an alternative fumigant in Quarantine and Pre-shipment (QPS) applications was presented by Sumitra Arora, Principal Scientist, ICAR-NCIPM, New Delhi, with laboratory and field data. Alice R. P. Sujeetha Director (PBD), NIPHM, Hyderabad, explained various bio-security threats.
Integrated Pest Management
Integrated Pest Management (IPM) is a pest control approach based on combinations of various techniques which are environmentally friendly and effective. S. Mohan, retired professor, TNAU, Coimbatore, spoke about different indigenous insect pest detection and monitoring devices for use at rural and large-scale grain storage centres.
M. Loganathan, Director (I/C), NIFTEM, Thanjavur, discussed non-chemical methods for insect pest management in grain storage.
Scientists from CFTRI spoke about new trends in mitigating mycotoxins in stored grain and ways to address the issue.
Ujjwal Kumar, Business Head, UPL Ltd., spoke about the campaign ‘Dana Dana Kimati Hai’ for reducing the food loss by insect infestation during storage.
Demonstration
A demonstration was conducted on hermetic methods of grain storage. This method was explained and demonstrated by representatives from GrainPro Ltd. The importance of gas monitoring during fumigation and different equipment available for the same were elaborated.
