Ram Asre-A Profile

Ram Asre – A brief profile about me

I was born on 4^th January 1956 at village Dayalpur now a mohalla of district Auraiya of Utter Pradesh State of India. I am the only son my parents with no siblings. My father’s name was late Paramsukh who was a govt. servant and was working in the veterinary department of Utter Pradesh state, and my mother’s name was Late Ram Katori who was a house wife. My wife smt Indu Bala is a house wife. We are blessed with three daughters named Neetu (pinki), Neelam and Nisha.

I started my primary education from my native place, Dayalpur. Then I went to district Fatehpur U.P. where my father was posted. I completed my 10^th class in 1970 from Bahua Inter College Bahua, Fatehpur District. Then I went to Bakewar of district Etawah U.P. and passed my intermediate exam from Janta Vidyalaya inter college Bakewar in 1972. After that I did my B.Sc in 1975 with Zoology,Botany and Chemistry and M.Sc in 1977 in zoology with specialization in Entomology from Janta College Bakewar under Kanpur University Kanpur now known as Chhatrapati Shahu Ji Maharaj University Kanpur.

I joined my service on 2nd Feb,1978 in the Directorate of Plant Protection, Quarantine and Storage of Govt of India under Ministry of Agriculture and was posted at Faridabad initially. I served in this Directorate on several positions in different sub-offices of this Directorate located in different states of the country and retired as Joint Director Entomology with additional charge of Additional Plant Protection Adviser (Integrated Pest Management) on 31^st Jan 2016.

I dedicated 38 years of my services to the Indian Plant Protection in

the Directorate of Plant Protection, Quarantine and Storage (Dte of PPQ&S) in Department of

Agriculture, Co-operation and Farmers Welfare (DACFW) under Union Ministry of

Agriculture, Farmers Welfare, Government of India. During this period, I served in Biocontrol, Pests Surveillance, Integrated Pest Management (IPM), Plant Quarantine, Locust Control & Research schemes and Central Insecticides Laboratory (CIL), Faridabad under Implementation of Insecticides Act scheme of the Dte and gained the experience and knowledge of field, laboratory, and extension work besides formulating policies and planning for the scheme of Locust Control & Research and Integrated pest Management Scheme as a Scheme Officer. Liaisoning and interacting with national and international agencies and personalities, farmers, extension workers and other IPM stake holders remained some of the spokes of umbrella of my work.

The stopping of aerial spraying on my advise in most of the sugar cane

growing states of India due to colonizing and establishing the ectoparasite Epiricania

melanoleuca by me, launching of successful locust control operation for the first time in cold

desert area in Ladakh region of J&K state during 2006 and in Schedule Desert Area (SDA) of

Rajasthan in 2005, destruction of 14 No's of consignments of garlic imported from Pakistan

at Rail Cargo Amritsar during 2007-08 gave me heartfelt satisfaction in the interest of the

nation. However, pest forewarning and networking of all field stations of the Directorate need

to be paid more attention.

I wrote several books and published several scientific papers on Biocontrol,plant Quatantine,Locust Control,Surveillance , IPM in different journals, organised several seasonal ,long and short duration training programmes on IPM in various crops in different states of country. I also participated in Krishi Vasant  Mela organised at Central Institute of Cotton Research Nagpur on 9-13 feb 2014 by way of organising a live  demonstration of Ecological Engineering in cole crops and by organising and exhibition of live specimens of farmers friendly organisms and models related with IPM . I also organised a live demonstration of IPM farmers field school in this mela. Grow Safe Food campaign was organised in all over India under my supervision .Headed national IPM programme in India. Pest surveillance programme in different crops,was also launched in my supervision. I visited Indonasia Netherland ,Germany ,Itely ,France, Singapore, Thailand and USA under different programmes of Govt India.

My several Interviews on different aspects of IPM were telecasted on television.

I dedicated my services to Indian farmers so that they can provide us safe food to eat and quality agricultural products to trade. 

Activities performed after retirement from Govt Service-On next page.........RAM ASRE.

 

Experiences gained and lessons learned during IPM work. part 2

1)      Nation must have an emergency mitigation system with detailed contingency plan, emergency fund and other plant protection and pest surveillance tools to meet any pest emergency.

2)      Chemical pesticides must be used only as an emergency tool.

3)      Chemical pesticides are more harmful than pests hence they must be used judiciously

4)      Chemical pesticides are not being used but they are being misused.

5)      Calendar based and prophylactic use of chemical pesticides is neither needed nor useful for crop yield.

6)      All organisms found in the agro eco system are not harmful.

7)      Not all the pests must be controlled / managed. Control only those pests which don’t give us time to control them.

8)      A strong political and bureaucratic support, co-operation and co-ordination with states is essentially needed to implement IPM.

9)      Only on few occasions the crop failure was observed due to misuse of chemical pesticide and fertilizers.

10)   None of the chemical pesticide is safe to animals and human beings.

11)   Beyond plant protection IPM deals many things like –

·         Farmers livelihood

·         Community health

·         National and international aspects

·         Ecological aspects

·         Bio security including trade and health security

·         Economical and social aspects etc. 

Experiences Gained And Lesson Learned In Doing IPM Work part1

1) There is no separate policy of Integrated Pest Management (IPM) neither at central nor at state level . However IPM has been included in National Policy on Agriculture 2000, National policy On Farmers 2007, and document of 12th plan of planning commission . There is an urgent need to have a separate policy on IPM both at Central and State level . We also must have legislation for conservation of beneficial organisms found in Agro Eco System which are being killed deliberately due to indiscriminate use of chemical pesticides .

2) IPM is a Plant Protection  with due care of human and animal health , environment , Eco system ,
    bio-diversity , bio-security including food and trade security.

3) Food security and food safety  must go simultaneously . We need to have second Green Revolution with quality revolution also.

4) IPM system is a total crop health management system while doing crop cultivation . On each    occasion the crop is being cultivated for a particular purpose by way of adopting  particular package
  of practices . IPM is a set of different practices of crop health management including pest     Management . Even thinking  about what crop is to be grown in particular time , what variety should be grown ,when it should be grown , how much seed will be  needed are the practices of IPM.

The crop yield is influenced by the both bio-tic and abio-tic factors of an Agro Eco System . Hence we have to manage both bio-tic and abio-tic factors for doing IPM.

5) Non availability of IPM inputs at door steps of farmers is the main constraint for implimantation of    IPM