Effect of organic amendments on termite population and yield of wheat in arid eco-system of Rajasthan

Abstract

The research experiment was conducted at Research Farm of College of Agriculture, Swami Keshwanand Rajasthan Agricultural University, Bikaner (Rajasthan) during rabi 2013-14. Eight organic amendments viz., Bone meal, cotton cake, mustard cake, groundnut cake, neem cake, FYM, Vermi-compost and poultry manure were tested against termites in wheat as soil application at the time of land preparation before sowing. All the organic amendment treatments were found significantly superior to control till 15 week after sowing.The application of neem cake as organic amendments resulted the lowest 2.75 per cent plant damage and found significantly superior in managing the termite infestation in wheat crop over all the evaluated organic amendments except bone meal (3.66%) and vermi-compost (3.97%). The plots treated with cotton cake (6.02%), were not equally effective as neem cake and found at par with poultry manure (6.10%).Out of these evaluated organic amendments, the highest (9.76%) damaged plants were observed in plots treated with FYM and it was at par with groundnut cake (9.74%) treated plots. the application of neem cake, bone meal and vermi-compost @ 1 tonne/ha were found highly effective against termite in wheat as organic amendments. The maximum (4210 kg ha-1) grain yield was obtained from the plots treated with neem cake and it was at par with bone meal (3852 kg ha-1) and vermi-compost (3728kg ha-1)