Integrated pest management in fodder cowpea (Vigna unguiculata L. Walp) in India and its economics

Abstract

The major insect pests: leafhoppers (Empoasca kerri); defoliators (flea‐beetle, Pagria signata; semilooper, Plusia nigrisigna; tobacco caterpillar, Spodoptera litura; and grasshoppers, Colemania sphenarioides, Chrotogonus trachypterus and Atractamor‐pha crenulata crenulata) which damage the cowpea crop and reduce its yield, can be managed by adopting the following practices without the use of insecticides. Growing the least susceptible variety ('IGFRI‐450), using an optimum fertilizer combination of 30 kg N, 100 kg P₂O₅ and 40 kg K₂O/ha, with two weedings at the appropriate stages of crop growth, 15 and 30 days old, and sowing the crop at the optimum time, the first week of July. This gave a net profit of Rs.1477 per ha with a cost‐benefit ratio of 1: 1.80.

Keywords:

• cowpea pests
• integrated control

Notes

Senior Scientist (Entomology), Room No. 321, Krishi Bhavan, Indian Council of Agricultural Research, New Delhi‐110 001, India.

Junior Scientist, Agricultural Research Centre, Harda—461 331 Distt.‐Hoshangabad, Madhya Pradesh, India.