Corn & Pesticides – In These Modern Times, We Should Be Thinking Olden Times!
Above, this Facebook sharing of Philmaize
Kamais, PK, tells me that the PK people have not learned their lesson in history: They are living in modern
times but are ignoring the living past.
The sharing says:
Pesticides
guide for corn farmer. Beware FAW (fall army worm). Let’s keep our vigilance in
our corn fields. May God bless our farmers, our country.
What follows is PK’s long list of chemicals
to fight the FAW.
But why does PK begin the advice with
Modern Control and not with Historic Natural Pest Management, NPM? Why make the
Chemical your first choice when you have the Natural?
Now then, with the long list of chemicals
to fight the FAW, I have superimposed the image of a trap crop (from Agripedia[1]) –
all PK and/or any of those corn farmers has to do is look for a crop that
attracts the armyworm more than the corn, and you have your savior of a plant –
no chemicals involved. That’s NPM.
Why is PK happy to resolve the problem of
the FAW but not unhappy with the unhealthy corn it is selling to people for
their tables or their poultry or livestock – which of course are for people’s
tables eventually? Chemical agriculture is for the chemical companies, not for the
consumers!
Where you plant your corn, you should also
welcome the birds and the bees, the flowers and the trees. Planet Natural
Research Center says that birds love those worms; also, there are beneficial
insects[2].
Armyworms, or caterpillars, also attack
rice[3]
(IRRI, Rice Knowledge Bank). This webpage says, “Flooding seedbeds is the best
defense against armyworms.” Ah, but I don’t think so, even if that is a
natural, non-chemical method. This website also says, “Avoid killing natural
enemies of armyworms such as wasps and spiders.” Now then, if you plant crops
that attract wasps and spiders, you have trap crops and do not need to use
chemicals to fight the armyworms!
In the Ilocos Region, they intercrop rice
with onion or garlic[4],
and they are successful farmers, as reported by Rene Rafael C Espino and Cenon
S Atienza (July 2000, “Crop Diversification In The Philippines,” FAO). The authors say:
The (Department
of Agriculture) has adopted crop diversification as a strategy to promote and
hasten agricultural development. As such, this paper presents crop
diversification in two perspectives. One aspect is planting a cash crop after
the main crop and the other is planting intercrops (permanent or cash crops)
in-between the main crop, usually a permanent crop. This strategy helps attain
the (goals) of the Department in increasing productivity and farm income, (not
to mention) environmental conservation.
When they say “environmental conservation,”
they mean not introducing foreign materials like insecticides and pesticides.
In growing commercial corn, why does Philmaize Kamais think of Chemical
Methods to fight armyworms and not Natural Methods? The Chemical is at the
expense of the worms; the Natural results in the loss of the worms and the gain
in health of the people!@517
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