GUWAHATI: A daylong workshop for farmers to attest the utility of a ‘paper microscope’ in advocating management practices against microscopic pests in organic farming, was held at Mysain village in Umiam recently.
The paper microscope, called Foldscope, is affordable and used to observe minute things and designed to be extremely portable, durable and designed to give optical quality similar to conventional research microscopes.
The workshop, conducted by ICAR-National Bureau of Agricultural Insect Resource, Bengaluru in association with ICAR Research Complex for North East Hill Region, was a part of the Northeast twinning programme, a statement issued here on Saturday, said.
Around 35 tribal farmers, who generally practice organic farming of field and horticultural crops on their smallholdings, participated in the workshop. The programme started with field observation on pest incidence and their sample collection.
In the workshop, Krishnappa R, scientist (plant physiology), ICAR, described the special features and its unique applications in organic agriculture such as observation on microscopic pests, disease spores, rhizosporic microbes and crop floral structures. The role of foldscope for stage-specific observation and management of microscopic pests, especially during early stages of pest as well as crop growth (seedling) was also highlighted. Later, the farmers were exposed to handle the paper microscope with special emphasis on its utility in observation of harmful and beneficial microscopic pests such as aphids, thrips, trichograma and mites.
Techniques such as mounting of slides, visualisation under the foldscope, capturing images on smartphones and forwarding them to the experts besides laboratory tests were demonstrated by research fellows.
Field visits were arranged for in situ localisation of microscopic pests, their sampling and handling for observation under foldscope after conclusion of the workshop, which was the first of its kind.
The department of biotechnology, Union ministry of science and technology offered financial support for the programme.
