Evaluate the efficacy of biorational pesticides against the key pests of okra, Abelmoschus esculentus (L.) at Northern hills of Chhattisgarh

Abstract

A field experiment was conducted at the Agriculture Research Farm of Raj Mohini Devi College of Agriculture and Research Station, Ambikapur (C.G.), during Kharif - 2023, to assess the efficacy of various biopesticides against key okra pests. Jassids, whitefly, aphids, and shoot and fruit borer were found to be key pests of okra plants. The results revealed that most effective treatments was Neem oil in reducing the jassids population (3.75 jassids/plant). The next most effective treatments were NSKE (3.83 jassids/plant), B. bassiana (4.51 jassids/plant). The treatment Neem oil was the best, treatment a recorded minimum population 3.26 whitefly/plant It was followed by treatment NSKE (3.49 whitefly/plant) and B. bassiana (3.71 whitefly/plant). Against aphids, NSKE was the most effective treatment, with a minimum population of 3.18 aphids per plant, followed by Neem oil (3.69 aphids per plant). Between treatments, the differences in shoot and fruit borer infestations varied from 3.68% to 12.18%. Neem oil outperformed all other spray applications in terms of infestation reduction (3.68%). The next most successful treatments were NSKE (4.31%), B. bassiana (5.06%), M. anisopliae (5.57%), B. thuringiensis (6.19%).