DEVELOPMENT OF EFFECTIVE MANAGEMENT PRACTICE(S) AGAINST POD BORER (HELICOVERPA ARMIGERA HUBNER) INFESTING CHICKPEA

ABSTRACT: There are many constraints in chickpea production, of which pod borer, Helicoverpa armigera Hubner is the most notorious pest which causes both quantitative and qualitative loss. Therefore, the study was conducted at the research field of Plant Pathology and Seed Science Department, Faculty of Agriculture, Sylhet Agricultural University (SAU), Sylhet, Bangladesh to evaluate the effectiveness of different synthetic insecticides and natural botanicals against the pod borer attacking chickpea during 25 November, 2018 to15 April, 2019. The six treatments viz., spraying of lamda-cyhalothrin @ 1.5 ml L-1 of water, chloropyrifos + cypermethrin @ 2 ml L-1 of water, chlorantranilprole @ 0.15g L-1 of water, neem leaf extract (1:4), bishkatali leaf extract (1:4), marigold leaf extract (1:4), and untreated control (water sprayed only) were evaluated in this experiment. The parameter viz., pod damage (%), number of pod plant-1, number of bored pod per 10 infested pods, plant height (cm), number of branch plant-1, weight of 1000 seeds (g), yield of chickpea (t ha-1) were investigated to evaluate the treatments against the pod borer. Results indicated that lamda-cyhalothrin was found as most effective insecticide because it caused the highest pod damage reduction over the untreated control (72.53%) and provided the highest yield (1.6 t ha-1) and highest marginal benefit cost ratio (MBCR) (4.60). Thus, it may be concluded that spraying of lamda-cyhalothrin may be an effective management practice against the chickpea pod borer. 

Keywords: Chickpea, pod borer, control, MBCR, economics.