Farmers participatory intervention for management of shoot gall psylla, Apsylla cistellata Buckton in mango

Field trials for management of shoot gall psylla in mango cv. Dashehari were laid out at 35 years old orchards of 10 randomly selected villages of Dehradun, Uttarakhand, India during December 2013 to July 2017 through farmer's participatory intervention. It was found during study that lack of sufficient knowledge among orchardists about the prevalence of shoot gall psylla, Apsylla cistellata Buckton is one of the most important factors for its increased incidence on mango trees over the years. Observations recorded during December 2014 revealed severe incidence of the shoot gall psylla on mango with as many as 222.76 number of galls/10 twigs. As a result of severe incidence of shoot gall psylla infestation on mango trees coupled with no effective management measures by the farmers, the fruit yield was also very low i.e 48.84 kg/tree during June-July 2015. The interventions made by two applications of mixed insecticides solution (thiamethoxam @ 0.75 g + profenophos @ 1.5 ml/l of water) along with sticker (@ 1 ml/l of insecticide solution) during second fortnight of August to first week of September at 15 days interval proved most effective in management of this devastating pest. Observations recorded after intervention of the shoot gall psylla management schedule revealed significant reduction in the severity of this pest at all the locations both during 2015 and 2016. After imposition of farmer's participatory management package, the infestation of shoot gall psylla recorded during December revealed that the number of galls per 10 twigs was reduced to 1.34 and 0.86 during 2015 and 2016, respectively. As a result of reduced incidence of shoot gall psylla infestation due to management interventions, the fruit yield of mango cv. Dashehari increased up to 212.32 kg and 287.96 kg/tree during June-July, 2016 and 2017, respectively. The results recorded from mango orchards of 10 villages were very encouraging and drew the attention of farmer's of nearby villages mainly due to enhanced fruit yield of mango. Many farmer's showed keen interest for adoption of this technology, as a result of the mango area under management of shoot gall psylla through this technique increased from 200 ha in 2014–2015 to 2000 ha during 2016–2017. The intervention resulted in enhanced additional income of mango growers from Rs 0.9 crores from 200 ha orchards during 2014–2015 to Rs 5.06 crores from 1200 ha orchards during 2015–2016 and further Rs 5.68 crores from 2000 ha orchards during 2016–2017. Thus the intervention resulted in generating an additional estimated income of Rs 11.64 crores to the mango growers during three years of farmer's participatory management of shoot gall psylla in mango cv. Dashehari.