Eco-friendly management of sucking pests infesting Bt cotton
Research Type
Non Project Trials
Experiment Background
The major biotic constraints in Bt cotton is the sucking pests The cotton growers mostly rely on synthetic insecticides to manage the sucking pests. Though, incidence of cotton aphid noticed throughout the season, its peak infestation observes in late season with onset of winter and under severe attack crumpling and downward curling of leaves as direct damage and indirectly affected lint quality due to the excessive secretion of honeydew and contamination with molds. Common predators especially coccinellids, Chrysoperla and spider are appeared naturally with the aphid infestations and generally they lay eggs in close proximity to prey patches/ aphid colonies as their immature stages are less mobile. Excessive use of synthetic insecticides caused adverse effects on natural enemies and creates environmental hazards. Considering the close association of aphids with their natural enemies, Thus, there is need to use alternatives to synthetic insecticides. Various neem based products viz., preparation/ seed extract/oils/ formulation are proved effective against sucking pests. Neemastra is an organic preparation containing neem oil and fermented cow urine used in natural /zero budgets farming, environmentally safe and used as non-chemical pest management in option in modern day agriculture system as it also supplement nutrients. Neem oil is a natural derivative of the neem tree which is considered as organic and biodegradable. Neem seed kernel extract is a pure seed powder that contained biological active ingredient called azadirachtin. Azadirachtin 10000 PPM is a commercial neem seed kernel based EC containing Azadirachtin 1% minimum azadirachtin with other ingredients. The other neem based formulation with banana pseudostem based organic liquid preparations also supplemented nutrition through foliar sprays. Microbial insecticides, due to their selectivity are valuable where predators are appeared naturally with their prey insects and humid condition is prevalent. In that context, the experiment is proposed to find out the efficacy of organic preparations and microbial insecticides against aphid infesting Bt cotton.
Experiment Group
Agricultural Entomology
Unit Type
(01)RESEARCH UNIT
Unit
(46)MAIN COTTON RESEARCH STATION (SURAT)
Department
(269)Main Cotton Research Station Surat
BudgetHead
(313/12014/00)313/01/REG/00087
Objective
To evaluate the organic preparations and microbial insecticides against sucking pests infesting Bt cotton