Economic comparison of control and prevention strategies with rice stem borer in Rasht city

Academic Thesis for Master's Degree

Field: Agricultural Engineering, Agricultural Management Direction

Abstract

The amount of damage caused to agricultural products by weeds, diseases, insects and pests from the total The damages caused to agricultural products, which is about 35%, have been determined as 45%, 30%, 20% and 5% respectively. Although chemical control has been effective for many damaging factors and has brought about a great transformation in increasing production, their cost and adverse effects on the environment and the quality of agricultural products have led to more attention to the use of methods in which there is little or no need to use chemicals. Rice stem borer is one of the key pests of rice in Gilan province and every year it causes huge damage to the rice farmers of Rasht city. There are different methods to control the rice stem borer pest, so this research tries to compare the two methods of chemical and biological control from the economic point of view and introduce them to the rice farmers of Rasht city. For this purpose, descriptive correlation method has been used in this research. With the method of multi-stage random sampling, 354 people were randomly selected and the content validity of the questionnaire was obtained by the experts of Stangilan Agricultural Jihad Organization who were related to the subject. Also, the reliability test was conducted through a guide study to obtain the reliability coefficient of the questionnaire and Cronbach's alpha coefficient of 0.907 was obtained for the questionnaire. The results of the t-test regarding the individual, agronomic and economic characteristics of farmers using biological control compared to farmers using chemical control showed that variables such as the number of family members, the total area of ??agricultural land, the area under rice cultivation, average yield, annual income, annual rice farming income and miscellaneous income between the two groups, that is, farmers using chemical and biological control, do not have any significant differences. However, there is a significant difference between the two societies at the level of 99% in the history of rice farming and the history of agriculture, and in the case of the age of the two societies at the level of 95%. In addition, the current research showed that based on the prices of 2013 and considering the costs of biological control compared to chemical control per hectare of rice cultivation, biological control can be economically replaced by chemical control.

Key words: damage, pest, chemical control, biological control.

Introduction

Vegetable rice It has a long history in the world, whose cultivation dates back to 7000 years before Christ. Its origin is Southeast Asia, mainly China, and after wheat, it has the largest area of ??cultivated agricultural land in the world. This plant is cultivated on an area equivalent to 150 million hectares and in more than 50 countries of the world. Around 1.125 billion people and at least 225 million rural households in the world depend on rice for their lives. Currently, the production of rice in the world is 560 million tons, which should reach 840 million tons by 2020, because the world's population will reach 8 billion people by then (IRRI [1], 2008). Rice, along with wheat and corn, is considered one of the most important sources of human nutrition, so that more than 3.5 billion people around the world rely on this food directly. or are indirectly related (Data, 2004). Rice is cultivated on an area of ??nearly 640 thousand hectares in the rice-growing provinces of the country (Asghari, 2009) and is attacked by important and dangerous pests such as the rice stem borer (Chilo suppressalis) every year (Ebert, 1972). This pest was identified and named for the first time by Walker in 1863. In the larval stage, this insect feeds on the stem of the rice plant, and in the vegetative stage, it causes the death of the central bud and in the reproductive stage, it causes the whiteness of the rice spikes. Various pests, diseases and weeds threaten the products of the region and providing the necessary guidance to control these factors is one of the duties of the agricultural graduates.In the government sector, the plant protection unit of each of the sixteen managements of agricultural jihad of the province are responsible for this responsibility, and until 2016, each of them had two or more technical personnel. Due to the lack of personnel and necessary facilities, it was not possible to reach all the villages to guide the farmers. The amount of crop loss due to rice stem borer infestation in Asia is estimated between 1 and 20 percent, and in flood conditions, the amount of damage can be from 30 to 100 percent (Indike, 2002). By reviewing the internal sources, no research has been done in the field of economic comparison of strategies to control and deal with rice stem borer in the country. Therefore, taking into account all methods of controlling the rice stem-eating pest (agricultural, mechanical, chemical, biological, etc.), this research tries to compare two methods of controlling the rice stem-eating pest, chemical and biological, among other control methods, and introduce the economic method to the farmers, taking into account the adverse environmental effects, so that an effective step can be taken to increase profitability and productivity among the rice farmers of Rasht city, and the results of this research are expected. It should be used by managers, experts and employees of the Agricultural Jihad Organization and all experts of executive bodies and students and researchers.

1-2 - Statement of the problem

Rice after wheat, as the second strategic product of the country and the world, is of special importance in the matter of community nutrition. According to the agricultural statistics of the agricultural year 1387-88, the area under rice cultivation in 22 provinces of Iran is 538,813 hectares with the production of 2,253,417 tons of paddy, and the share of Gilan province as the second rice producer in the country is 33.9% of the country's rice fields with an area of ??181,694 hectares and the production of 661,319 tons of paddy. Of course, the area under rice cultivation in the province is 238,000 hectares according to the statistics of Gilan Agricultural Jihad. In fact, rice cultivation is considered the most important agricultural activity in Gilan province and the economy of this province is based on agriculture and is based on rice.

Since agriculture is the main source of income for 51% of the world's population, the damage caused by pests can lead to a significant decrease in yield and income (FAO[2], 2009). Other pests are estimated at 45, 30, 20 and 5 percent respectively. Although chemical control has been effective for many damage factors and has caused a great change in increasing production, their cost and adverse effects on the environment and quality of agricultural products have led to more attention to the use of methods in which there is little or no need to use chemicals (Ranjabr et al., 2016). Rice stem borer is considered one of the most destructive pests in most rice fields in the world and Iran (Khan et al. [3], 1990). This pest attacks rice plants at different growth stages, causing the death of the central bud and the whiteness of the clusters (Rubia Sanchez et al. [4], 1997).

Today, management is considered as an important factor in all economic sectors, especially agriculture, as a fourth factor has been added to the three production inputs, namely land, labor, and capital. In order to show the importance and role of management in agricultural production, it is enough that every year in similar conditions in terms of available physical inputs, some farmers produce more and actually have higher productivity. Therefore, determining the extent to which farmers act based on economic principles and criteria regarding the use of poisons and different control methods as an input will play an important role in planning. (Hosnimghadam et al., 2016).

Therefore, the comparison of economic strategies for control and prevention of rice stem borer in Gilan province was considered as the goal of this research. Therefore, the basic question is which of the economic strategies for control and prevention of rice stem borer have more suitable conditions in Gilan province?

1-3- Importance and necessity Research

Rice stemworm [5] was identified and collected in Iran for the first time in 1351 from the fields in the north of the country. In most cases, the most important pests of rice are the stem eaters, which infect the rice plants from the stage of harvesting.