Eco-friendly Management of Major Insect Pests of Okra with Intercropping and Newer Molecules

A field experiment was conducted during kharif seasons of 2008 and 2009 on okra, Abelmoschus esculentus (L.) Moench with ten treatment combinations replicated thrice comprising intercropping of baby corn, sorghum, black gram, and cluster bean planted surrounding the main crop; with and without foliar spraying of insecticides viz., Neem baan @ 3ml/l and spinosad @ 75 g a.i/ha at fortnight interval for minimizing the incidence of major insect pests. In both crop seasons, T₇ (Okra + Cluster Bean with Neem baan @ 3ml/lit and spinosad application)recorded the lowest mean population of leafhopper (21.4 and 58.3 nos/15 leaves), red spider mite (108.4 and 101.4 nos/cm²) and lowest fruit damage on number (7.5 and 7.3%) and weight (7.8 and 7.3%) basis by Earias vittella while lowest whitefly population was recorded in T₁ (Okra + Baby corn with Neem baan and spinosad)(9.2 and 9.1 nos/15 leaves). The population of coccinellids was high in T₈ (4.6 and 4.3 nos/5plants) while spiders were high in T₂ (5.2 and 4.3 nos/5plants). Among the intercropping treatments, T₇ and T₁ were identified as cost effective intercropping systems. All the intercropping treatments significantly reduced the leafhopper, whitefly, red spider mite and fruit damage and had more number of coccinellids, spiders and higher additional return over sole crop of okra.