To find alternative methods for controlling pests, researchers from DA-PhilRice Agusan evaluated the effectiveness of insect-killing fungi in managing rice pests.
The study, “On-Farm Evaluation on Entomopathogenic Fungi, Beauveria bassiana (Bals.) Vuill. for the Management of Rice Bug in Agusan del Norte” compared the potential of the fungi with farmers’ conventional insecticide application against brown plant hopper, rice bug, and rice black bug.
According to researcher Belen Tabudlong, the use of these fungi can result in over 50% cost savings and can cause more than 60% mortality in insect pest populations. The study also offers environmental and economic benefits.
The fungi were cultured with the B. bassiana-infected rice bug in flat bottles inoculated into 200g culture substrates with the use of corn.
These substrates were suspended in water then applied in an infected field using a spray bottle.
The study was awarded best research paper during the recent Regional Symposium on Research and Development Highlights (RSRDH) by the Caraga Consortium for Agriculture, Aquatic, Forestry and Natural Resources Research and Development and will be published in the Philippine Entomologist Journal.
Tabudlong conducted the study with Malou Villaruben and Noel Quiroben.
