Author(s): Hubballi Aravinda, GT Shruthi, SN Nandini, AN Shylesha, TM Shivalingaswamy and R Vijay

Abstract: Okra (Abelmoschus esculentus (L) Moench) is a highly popular and extensively cultivated vegetable. One of the significant challenges in okra production is the presence of sucking pests, which severely limit its growth. To combat these pests and reduce losses, farmers have been relying heavily on pesticides. Unfortunately, this excessive use of pesticides has led to problems such as resistance development, pest resurgence, and environmental contamination. To address these issues, a recent study was conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of various bio-pesticides for the eco-friendly management of sucking pests in okra cultivation. The field experiment was conducted to investigate the effectiveness of botanical and microbial pesticides against sucking insect pests of okra (Ablemoschus esculentus L) at ICAR-NBAIR Research Farm, Attur, Bengaluru during Kharif-2020. Five treatments viz., T₁: Beauveria bassiana (5 g/l), T₂: Lecanicillium lecanii (5 g/l), T₃: Metarrhizium anisopliae (5 g/l), T₄: Bacillus thuringiensis var kurstaki (2 ml /l), T₅: Neem oil 0.5% (5 ml/l), and T₆: water spray as control were selected by adopting RBD design. Treatments tested against leafhoppers, L. lecanii @ 5 g/l was found to be superior, whereas, against aphids, Neem oil @ 0.5% was found to be superior and the treatment L. lecanii @ 5 g/l was shown to be superior against whitefly at 3, 7, and 10 days after first and second sprays, respectively. Therefore, these treatments hold promise for use in biological control methods to manage these pest species in an eco-friendly manner.

DOI: 10.33545/26174693.2024.v8.i5Sa.1115