Incidence and extent of damage due to insect pests of stored chickpea Cicer arietlnum (L.) in Haryana state, India

Chickpea, Cicer arietinum (L) an important leguminous crop, is commonly cultivated in different parts of world, where it is often severely damaged in storage conditions. So, the main constraint for production of chickpea is post-harvest loss during storage. The chickpea production amounted to 75.5 percent of the total pulses production and storage was 57.9 percent of total chickpea production of suryed farmers. Five insect pests i.e. Callosobruchus chinensis (L), Tribolium castaneum (H.), Trogoderma granarium (E.), Rhizopertha dominica (E), and Sitophilus oryzae (L) were observed in stored chickpea. The present study concluded that major insect infesting chickpea was C. chinensis which reached its peak during Septmber -October and the grain damage was rated the highest during January-February (13.75%) and lowest during June-July (3.05%).