Screening of resistant pigeonpea genotypes against pod infecting insects

Pigeonpea is being attacked by several pod borers from the initiation of flowering to harvesting. During pod development and maturity, pod sucking bugs and pod fly cause much damage and in turn severe economic losses. Identification of tolerant or resistant cultivars to these insect pests is of utmost important. So, a three year screening study was conducted from 2013 to 2015 during which 145 nos. of pigeonpea germplasm were screened and entries which showed resistance to a particular insect in all the three years were identified as the resistant entries. For plume moth, twenty entries showed stable resistance levels during all the three years. Among them, ICPL 8719 and H 23 recorded minimum PSI of 1.7. Eight entries i.e., CORG 9900134, H 23, V 127, ICP 11293, ICP 49114, ICP 11957, SMR 1693158 and ICPL 8719 showed constant resistance levels to blue butterfly. Among them, minimum PSI of 1.3 was recorded in ICPL 8719. Four entries i.e., H 23, GR 28, ICP 49114 and SMR 1693158 were found to be resistant to pod bug complex. SMR 1693158 with the PSI of 2.7 was found to be promising among them. For pod fly, five entries were constantly resistant (PLS 476 A, V 127, BAHAR, ICP 8863 and WRG 157) among which V 127 recorded less PSI (1.7).