Abstract :
Artificial infestation of Sesamia inferens larvae at 2 leaf stage (7 DAE) of the crop growth (Table 1) recorded significantly lowest mean grain yield of 47.59 q ha-1 than infested at 4 (53.44 q ha-1), 6 (59.84 q ha-1) and 8 (67.34 q ha-1) leaf stage of the crop. Artificial infestation of the maize crop with different larval densities (0, 5, 10, 15 and 20 larvae per plant) (Table 2) indicated that release of 20 larvae per plant adversely affected the grain yield and recorded 49.97 q ha-1 which was significantly less than the grain yield obtained with 15 larval density (54.12 q ha-1) and 10 larval density per plant (57.32 q ha-1). Estimation of avoidable yield losses in maize crop against S. inferens (Table 3) indicated that among the different stages of the crop growth, 2 leaf stage of the crop protected with endosulfan recorded maximum avoidable yield loss with different larval densities (18.17%, 22.45%, 35.12%, 37.62% and 45.39% with 0, 5, 10, 15 and 20 larval density per plant, respectively), than the other stages of crop and hence spraying of endosulfan at early stages of crop growth was found highly effective for controlling S. inferens and for obtaining higher yields.
Keyword :
Sesamia inferens, Maize, Avoidable yield loss