Pheromone trap is made with a plastic bottle, half-filled with water. The ingredientpheromoneis put inside, which attracts and kills pests. It is simple and costs very little but works wonder.

Farmers who earlier used to apply heavy doses of pesticide in their vegetables fields, now need only these wonder capsules they call 'talisman'.

This simple technology drastically reduced use of pesticide, making vegetables free from toxic elements and protecting the environment.

Farmers were doubly benefited by pheromone trap. They earned more money by producing vegetables with lesser costs while the environment was protected, said Shahidullah Khan, headmaster of a high school in Gaidghat.

Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute (BARI) in 2001 took up a special programme styled Integrated Pest Management Programme (IPM) to discourage farmers to use harmful pesticide. At first, vegetable cultivation without pesticide was initiated at Gaidghat village in Bagherpara upazila in Jessore district on an experimental basis. Use of pheromone trap worked a wonder in brinjal and sweet-pumpkin cultivation.

The BARI programme assisted by DFID, UK achieved a great success. The Natural Resources Institute (NRI) UK, Asian Vegetable Research and Development Centre (AVRDC) of Taiwan and multinational company Syngenta cooperated in the research, official sources said.

A high official of Agriculture Extension Department in Magura said farmers apply only 0.2 litre pesticide per hectare in paddy fields, 1.12 litres in vegetable (other than brinjal) fields but 1.41 litres in brinjal fields.

Earlier, farmers had to spend at least Tk 50,000 on pesticides per hectare for cultivating brinjal in a season but they now need Tk 15,000 for pheromone, the official said.

Malek Molla, a farmer in Gaidghat village told this correspondent during the recent visit that earlier, 10 to 20 kilograms of brinjal per maund (37.5 kg) were damaged despite use of pesticides. On the advice of BARI scientists, they used pheromone, which reduced the crop damage to 3-4 kilograms only.

One pheromone capsule attracts male shoot and fruit borers for two months. When artificial pheromone secretion loses effectiveness, farmers are to replace it with a new one.

But the farmers are now frustrated as pheromone capsule is now scarce.

Laxman Chandra, a farmer in Khanpur village in Bagherpara upazila said, "We came to know that farmers in India are being provided with pheromone by the government at subsidised rate but we are deprived of it while Rabi season has started.

Official sources said, NRI in UK is the only pheromone producing and marketing institute.

In May this year, Agriculture Minister MK Anwar after visiting vegetable producing areas in Gaidghat assured farmers that they would never face crisis of pheromone. As government had permitted multinational company Syngenta to import and market pheromone, it would be available from June, the minister had said.

But the assurance has not turned into a reality, plunging the farmers into uncertainty.