Efficacy of different vegetable oils as safer protectants of pigeonpea against Callosobruchus chinensis (Linn.)

Abstract

Pigeonpea (Cajanus cajan L.), one of the important pulse crops. ranks second in both area as well as production in Uttar Pradesh and also in India. It is grown extensively in India with current production of 2.43 million tonnes from 3.30 million ha area. Healthy seed is an important input in agriculture, governing grain productivity of crops. After harvest of pigeonpea, the farmers simply wait for good market price. The beetles of family bruchidae are closely associated with the plant family leguminasae, and many species are important primary insect pests of stored legumes. The pulse beetle is not only causing quantitative loss but also qualitative losses in nutrition and germination, which make pigeonpea unfit for marketing. Pesticides are effective in controlling the pests, but their residues may be hazardous. Therefore, alternative control measures which are non troxic, need to be found out. The plant products that are traditionally used and produced by the farmers in developing countries appear to be quite safe and promising (Jilani et al. 1998). Using plants with insecticidal. properties is, therefore, an attractive alternative to the more expensive synthetic pesticides as protectant against a number of stored grain insect pest (Ayyangar and Rao 1989; Dixit and Saxena 1990). Verma et al. (2004) reported the comparative efficacy of different indigenous plant products as grain protectant against Callosobruchus chinensis linn. with lentil crop. In the present studies, different plant oils were tested for their efficacy against C. chinensis.