Cultivation of Lac Insect Kerria lacca (Kerr.) (Katki Strain) in Punjab: Impact on Host Plant Cajanus cajan

The present study was conducted to evaluate the effect of Rangeeni strain of lac on the growth, yield attributes and biochemical constituents of two varieties (AL 882 and PAU 881) of pigeonpea, Cajanus cajan for a duration of two years (2019 & 2020) at Lac Insect Host Park, Department of Entomology, Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, Punjab, India. There was a significant reduction in plant height and number of pods per plant due to lac cultivation in both varieties, however number of branches per plant and seeds per pod were non-significant between lac inoculated and un-inoculated plants. The seed yield in lac inoculated plants of varieties AL 882 and PAU 881 was 30.40 and 23.84 g per plant with 26.61 and 23.46 per cent-reduction over un-inoculated plants, respectively. The reduction in 100 seed weight due to lac cultivation was 16.06 % and 16.88 % in PAU 881 and AL 882, respectively. Lac cultivation resulted in significant reduction in leaf chlorophyll (7.43 and 11.47 %) and seed protein content (30.75 and 16.89 %) in AL 882 and PAU 881, respectively. However, lac cultivation led to increase in total sugars (4.20 and 12.83 %) and phenols content (19.71 and 27.08 %) in varieties AL 882 and PAU 881, respectively. The correlation between scrapped lac yield and grain yield of pigeonpea was found to be significantly negative in both the varieties, AL 882 (r = -0.956) and PAU 881 (r = -0.920). On the basis of these results, variety AL 882 is quite promising for cultivation of Rangeeni strain (Katki crop) of lac owing to additional benefits as compared to the sole crop.