Eco-friendly management of pink stem borer Sesamia inferens walker in finger millet (Eleusine coracana Gaertn) in coastal Odisha

Abstract

Field experiments on the eco-friendly management of pink stem borer in finger millet cv. Bhairabi revealed the superiority of foliar spray of Bt (Bacillus thuringiensis) @ 2g/L at 30 DAS and NSKE 5% at 35 DAS in arresting mean stem borer damage i.e. (13.93 &14.48%) dead heart and (11.63% & 11.89%) white ear head as against 22.82% & 20.68% dead heart and white ear head respectively in control. At vegetative and heading stages treatments resulted upto 39.0% and 44.0% reduction in borer damage in comparison to control. In grain yield point of view both the treatments yielded more than 20.0q/ha which is significantly higher than untreated control (11.68q/ha).