This document summarizes various indigenous technological knowledge practices related to pest management from several countries including China, Malaysia, Vietnam, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, Northeast India, and other parts of India. It describes specific plant-based formulations and cultural practices used by local communities to control pests affecting different crops. Some examples include using neem, tobacco, tamarind or ash mixtures against rice pests, employing weaver ants as predators of mango tipborers, using smoke or ash to deter fruit flies or aphids, and placing plant materials like calotropis or sorghum to control armyworms, bollworms or birds for pest control in cotton.

1. KARTHIKEYAN, S (2015 800503)
Ph.D., Scholar,
Agricultural Entomology,
TNAU, Coimbatore.

2. Indigenous Technological Knowledge
ITK refers to the cumulative and complex bodies of
knowledge, know-how practices and representations
that are maintained and developed by local
communities, who have long histories of interaction
with the natural environment (UNESCO, 2012)
Indigenous Knowledge is the information base for a
society, which facilitates communication and
decision-making. Indigenous information systems are
dynamic, and are continually influenced by internal
creativity and experimentation as well as by contact
with external systems. (Flavier et al. 1995)

3. ITK Vs Science
The ITK, relies almost exclusively on intuition and
evidence directly available to the senses.
The scientific mode of thought is characterised by a
greater ability to break down data presented to the
senses and to reassemble it in different ways.

4. ITKs followed in China
Cotton seed oil, tobacco plant extracts and juniper oil
against rice borers and leafhoppers.
Tripterygium wilfordii (Celastraceae) – Rice hispa
- dry root powder mixed with ashes 1:5 ratio
- tobacco leaf powder in a 1:1 ratio
Powdered roots boiled in water for 30mins or cold
soaked for 24hrs
- caterpillars of tussock and pinemoth, mustard,
melon and rice leaf beetles

6. Malaysia and Vietnam
In Malaysia, the weaver ant O. smaragdina used as
predator of the large mango tipborer Penicillaria
jocosatrix (Guenee) (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae)
Also in citrus in the Mekong Delta, Vietnam
O. smaragdina is an important predator.

7. ITKs followed in Indonesia
Put corn seeds in vinegar or in lemon juice for a night
before planting.
To ensure that corn seed will germinate healthy
without ‘ulat’ (caterpillars) eat them”.
Farmers belives that a mouse would not eat a part of
a corn that has been eaten before. Therefore, a half of
a new ear in the front to make a corn ear ‘satay’, and
hang it in the field

8. ITKs followed in Sri Lanka
When farmers notice Nilaparvata lugens during the
maturity period the farmers institute dry conditions
In contrast when they notice worm problems in the
early stage of rice growth supply more water into the
field

9. ITKs followed in Tanzania
Neem, Mwarobaini leaves or seeds mixed with soft rice
husks
Tobacco leaves + tamarind (Tamarindus indica) fruits
Cow urine and detergent soap mixed with neem leaves
Cow dung mixed with general ash

10. Neem leaves or seeds mixed with
soft rice husks
The seeds or leaves of neem are grinded and soaked
in a litre of water for one day filter spraying.
In most cases this formulation is intended for maize
and/ or rice pests.

11. Tobacco leaves mixed with
tamarind (Tamarindus indica) fruits
The tobacco leaves and Tamarindus fruits are soaked
in water for some time filtered spraying to
cotton @ twenty litres per acre.

12. Cow urine + detergent soap + neem leaves
-Neem leaves are grinded and put in a twenty litre container.
In it add 50g of a detergent + cow urine (5 litres) are added.
Keep it undisturbed for four days.
-The filtrate is sprayed to a variety of crops in the field.
Cow dung + general ash :
- Ash from any source + cow dung soaked in water left
for some time filter dilute to 1:2 ratio & sprayed to
any plant

13. ITKs in North East India
Seeds free from pest and diseases
- Seeds of maize and leguminous crops are often kept
intact along with their outer husk and hang over the
kitchen/ furnace.

14. Traditional granary for paddy
Bamboo granaries plastered with fresh cowdung +
mustard oil cakes and branches with leaves of
Zanthoxylum acanthopodium on the top - common
pests of stored paddy grains.
Paddy granaries are either placed near the kitchen or
vicinity to kitchen in a separate house.

15. Rice pests
Erecting or pegging branches of Cymbopogon
khasianum, Saccharum spantaneum inhibits stem
borer of paddy.
Oak tree bark are grounded and placed over the
source of irrigation canal which inhibits the insect
pests of rice such as brown plant hoppers.
Cymbopogon
Saccharum spantaneum

16. ITKs in other parts of India
Rice yellow stem borer
-Placing of grounded bark of Moringa oleifera Lam. in
rice field
-Burying the puthi or barb fish (Puntius spp.) in to the
soil for 15-20 days and spraying water extract of them in
to the rice field
-Placing of branches of Calotropis procera in paddy fields.

17. Rice leaf folder
Rice leaf folder
Well fermented wine pomace usually made up of
millets are placed at the source of irrigation canal of
rice fields which slowly spread over the rice field and
inhibits the growth of pests such as leaf folder.
Rice thrips
Spraying of aqueous suspension of cow dung in the
nursery

18. Gundhi bug
Burning of bicycle tyres near the rice field before
panicle initiation.
Placing rotten crab or frog in plastic traps @ 1
trap/10sq.m area
Utongthangmei (burning of clothes on the bamboo
sticks in the four corners).
A rotten crab is placed on a stick in a infected field
Placing Kuthap (Clerodendrum viscosum Vent.) twigs
randomly in the infected field

19. Clerodendrum viscosum

20. • Wheat and maize army worm
- Spreading Calotropis procera leaves in the standing
crop.
- Collect and destroy the insects gathered on the
broadcasted leaves and simultaneously, replace with
the fresh leaves
Helicoverpa armigera
• Chemical were sprayed after mixing them with
kerosene or napthalene

21. Spraying of the latex of Calotropis gigantea roots,
branches and leaves diluted in 15 parts of water will be
effective against Cotton Bollworm and other defoliators
Spreading of Calotropis gigantea twigs on field
boundaries found to restrict movement of Groundnut
Red hairy caterpillar
Mustard Saw fly have been controlled by the
application of Calotropis leaf powder @ 50 kg/ha in
mustard

22. In Jalgaon, Nadurbar, Dhule and Ahmednagar
districts of Maharashtra, the farmers raise sorghum as
a mixed crop scattered in cotton fields.
The grain of sorghum attracts the birds and served as
a perch for the birds to reach the insects of cotton
plants.

23. Termite
Dipping of sugarcane setts in Calotropis procera leaf
extract @ 15% and 20%
Pouring Calotropis procera leaf extract solution in
termite-infested soil
Fresh cowdung cakes are placed over the surface soil
so, the termites move from sub soil to cowdung cakes
Kerosenated irrigation.

24. Spraying of dissolved silkworm excreta – Vegetables
defoliators
Sprinkling wood ash on vegetable crops - Aphids
Smoking in the pumpkin field - Pumpkin Fruit fly
Sand cover (2-5 cm depth) over the stored
potato -Potato Tuber moth
Burnig camel bones around vegetables

25. Placing of red tree ant (Oecophylla smaragdina) nest on
the citrus plant - Citrus defoliators
Bamboo poles connecting citrus trees - Citrus defoliators
Application of fish cleaned water/kerosene oil at the
base of plant - Citrus trunk borer
Common salt is applied to the base of plants - Banana
Snails and slugs
Smoke is generated at the base of fruit trees - Fruit moth
Jack fruit, mango

26. Mixture of sesamum and rice is spread on the
boundries newly sown field – black ants
Placing of long hair of women in the crown portion
of coconut tree - Rhinoceros beetle
The fragmented human hair and dry fish mixture are
kept in the Coconut crown – Squirrel

27. Storage pests
Keeping neem leaves and branches over the stored
rice may give protection against Stored grains Rice
weevil
Keeping of Chawai sabi (Polygonum hydropiper Linn.)
leaves over the stored rice - Rice moth
Artemisia vulgaris L. (Maharna) put fresh or dried
branches/leaves in and around granaries against many
stored pests.

28. Rodent management
Burrows of rats are stuffed with smoke by burning
paddy husk and land race dry chillies variety.
Waste electric bulbs grinded mixed with rice powder
Scorulla parasitica : Prepare gum from the fruits, fix
in sticks and put in possible rat
runways for trapping

29. Rodent management
Conventional pot and coconut shell trapping
 Medium sized pot
 Coconut shell
 Supporting twigs
 Any rat attractant

30. Bird perches
Catapults and drum beating - Birds and monkeys
Scarecrow
Pulses coated with red earth

31. "When a knowledgeable old person dies, a whole library
disappears.“