Fruit Pest Management in Pakistan: A Review

The purpose of this article is to review the several techniques used to control various pest species of fruit crops in Pakistan. Fruit pests cause considerable damage to Pakistan’s economy as fruit crops contribute approximately 13% to the GDP of Pakistan. Fruit exports of Pakistan reach up to 2366.5 billion rupees. Unfortunately, a major portion of these crops is lost annually because of pre-harvest or post-harvest pest infestations. Fruit flies, citrus whiteflies, cloudy winged whitefly, citrus blackfly, citrus leafminer, Nile whitefly, pepper whitefly, common walking sticks, gall midge, mealy bugs, moths and aphids are the most important pest species that infest various fruit crops such as mangoes, citrus, grapes, guava, peach, apple, date palm, banana, etc. Fruit flies pose the biggest threat as they infest more than 50 fruit crops. Pest control strategies practiced in the country include physical methods such as traps, baits, bands, as well as botanical controls, that is, using plant extracts to which pests are attracted and then killed or plant-based pest repellents, and chemical controls involving several types of insecticides and pesticides. Recently, integrated pest management techniques have emerged as successful and eco-friendly methods involving all the available measures to cope with a wide range of pest species, such as plant-based insecticides, traps and baits, mechanical and cultural methods, Male Annihilation Technique (MAT), Sterile Insect Techniques (SIT) etc. These techniques have certain limitations, therefore, the need arises to continuously work for the betterment of existing pest management techniques and proposing new and innovative methods to minimize pest infestation and yield losses in fruit crops.