Sampling Technique in Rice Pest Management: A Tool for the Rice Growing Farmers at Buang Thong Lang Village in Lam Luk Ka Sub-district, Pathum Thani Province, Thailand

Abstract

Buang Thong Lang village at Lam Luk Ka sub-district, Pathum Thani province was the area where the experiments were conducted for two consecutive rice cropping seasons, February-May 2004 and July- November 2004. It was aimed to assess effectiveness of sampling tactics through visual counting of pests from randomly selected rice hills. Pesticide spraying schedule was administered through the determination of economic threshold of rice pests. The study comprised of four farmers’ fields in a locality each of which was compared for grain yield, net returns taking into account the ecological aspects. The net economic benefits and presence of counts on natural enemies in an experimental plot were high which showed comparative advantages over the indecisive pesticide use driven traditional practices. It was concluded that the trends in present integrated pest management strategies designed for the farmers’ situation needed timely and accurate information on identification of the key pests before drastic chemical actions are deployed.