National Pest Surveillance

Features National Pest Surveillance

Plant Protection Service (PPS) comes under the purview of SeedCertification and Plant Protection Centre (SCPPC), Department ofAgriculture (DOA), Peradeniya.
The activities of Plant ProtectionService include, implementation of Plant Protection Act No.
35 of1999, through empowering of authorized officers and stakeholderson relevant provisions appointed island wide, Management of pest/disease outbreaks, implementation, monitoring and evaluation offield level Integrated Pest Management (IPM) programmes in rice,vegetables, fruits, other field crops and home gardens, Mitigatingthe impact of aquatic weeds and other invasive flora on agriculturallands through training of officers and farmers, Conducting bio-efficacytrials for pesticides especially weedicides and termiticides in farmers’fields, and termite control activities in the DOA/Government buildingpremisesThe activities of PPS also include promoting environment friendly,economically viable and effective pest management strategies tominimize crop losses, and implementing a pest surveillance system andadvising through stakeholder networking.
Furthermore, the DOA SriLanka, as a signatory to the International Plant Protection Convention(IPPC) and Sanitary and Phytosanitary Agreement of World TradeOrganization (SPS/WTO), is bound to establishment a pest surveillanceprogram within the territory in collaboration with the National PlantQuarantine Service.The Pest (including animal pests, pathogens, weeds) surveillanceprogram initiated by the PPS in early 1970’s has been discontinued forlack of staff and other technical constraints faced.
In view of the presentneed to introduce environment, farmer and consumer friendly pestmanagement system in the country the PPS decided to re-establisha pest surveillance system within the country.
As an initial step, PPSdecided to launch a pest surveillance program in 7 districts, namelyHambantota, Ampara, Batticaloa, Polonnaruwa, Anuradhapura,Mannar and Kurunegala focusing on six major insect pests of rice (RiceThrips, Gall Midge, Leaf folder, Yellow Stem Borer, Brown and White-backed Planthoppers and Paddy Bug) from 2021/2022 maha season.PPS expects to expand this program to cover other districts as well asto cover pests of other crops from yala 2022.This training manual has been designed to provide basic informationon the surveillance system we are intended to introduce for the use ofSubject Matter Officers (SMO) in the Agrarian Service Centres who arespecialized on plant protection activities in Sri Lanka.This manual includes only the important information required tocollect pest infestation levels in the selected locations; and expectto maintain a uniform recording system throughout the country tofacilitate sharing information for pest management programs andminimize crop losses and unwanted interventions that could beharmful to the ecosystem.The PPS intends to discuss the surveillance program with SMO throughZoom and field visits.
Furthermore, we kindly request you to provideyour feed back to improve the manual.