Population dynamics of brown plant hopper of paddy and its correlation with weather parameters

Abstract

An experiment was conducted in Research Farm, Orissa University of Agriculture and Technology Bhubaneswar, Odisha, India during 2017-2018, to study the effect of weather parameters on population dynamics of Brown Plant Hopper under with 12 dates of planting from 16th July 2017 to 1st January 2018 at 15 days interval with three aromatic varieties Geetanjali, Poorna Bhog and Pusa Sugandh –II. The incidence of BPH in the beginning was very low and the population increased along with the growth of the crop. The population was more during the vegetative growth stage of crop. BPH occurrence was more in 1st August and 16th November planting dates, which was positively correlated with rainfall (0.55-0.78) and relative humidity. The range of weather parameters such as maximum temperature of 32-34 °C, minimum temperature 25-270C, morning relative humidity 91-95% and evening relative humidity 75-80% were found favorable for peak population of BPH. The infestation was aggravated with the weekly cumulative rainfall up to 165 mm. However, the highest population was found at a weekly cumulative rainfall of 80 to 110 mm.