Influence of farmscaping on the insect pest complex of tomato
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Date
2013
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Publisher
MPUAT, Udaipur
Abstract
The impact of farmscaping on the insect pest complex of tomato was evaluated using
marigold in a field trial entitled, “Influence of farmscaping on insect pest complex of tomato” at
the Horticulture Farm of Rajasthan College of Agriculture, from August through November,
2012. The major insect pests recorded from the sole and farmscaped crop of tomato, stacked or
unstacked, included the aphids [Myzus persicae (Sulzer); Aphis gosssypii Glover], jassid
[Amrasca biguttula Ishida], whitefly [Bemisia tabaci Gennadius] and tomato fruit borer
[Helicoverpa armigera (Hub.)]. Incidence of aphids, jassids and whiteflies began in the second
and third weeks of August, 2012 and their populations reached the respective peaks in the II, III
and IV week of October, 2012. The populations of aphids, jassids, and whiteflies were positively
correlated with the mean atmospheric temperature in all the farmscape treatments evaluated.
Aphid and jassid populations were negatively correlated with relative humidity and total rainfall
when stacked or unstacked tomato was farmscaped with marigold, but whitefly population was
positively correlated with total rainfall. Stacked tomato farmscaped with marigold had
significantly the lowest number of damaged fruits (1.60 per plant) with minimum loss in fruit
weight of 51.84g leading to an increase in yield of 84 per cent. Unstacked sole crop of tomato
had the highest numbers of damaged fruits (10.00 per plant) with a corresponding loss in fruit
weight of 324g. Natural enemies were significantly higher in stacked tomato with marigold.
The bio-efficacy of different plant oils (Azadirachta indica, Pongamia glabra, Madhuca
latifolia, Vitex negundo, Rcinus communis, and Eucalyptus) against the insect pests of tomato
showed Vitex negundo (3%) to be most effective evincing a significant reduction in the
population of jassids (99.73%), whiteflies (99.04%) and aphids (96.39%) one day after
treatment. In the laboratory feeding trial, tomato fruits treated with Vitex negundo oil (3%)
resulted in 66.65 per cent mortality of second instar H. armigera larvae; while eucalyptus oil and
castor oil resulted into 63.91 and 61.14 per cent mortality.
Description
Influence of farmscaping on the insect pest complex of tomato
Keywords
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Citation
Kpassawah and Swaminathan, 2013