Seasonal abundance of spotted pod borer, Maruca vitrata fabricius in early pigeonpea [Cajanus cajan (L.) Millsp.] and its management through farmscaping in Uttar Pradesh

Field experiments were carried out in pigeonpea during Kharif 2014 to Kharif 2017 for Maruca vitrata Fabricius management through farmscaping approach with 7 different border crops (5 leguminous crops; 2 non-leguminous crops) and a sole crop. The M. vitrata larval webbing per plant was lowest and per cent decrease in webbing/plant over sole crop was highest in sorghum (2.05 and 60.95) as border crop followed by pearl millet (3.29 and 37.39). The highest mean number of Coccinella septumpunctata per plant (0.77), Cheilomenes sexmaculata per plant (0.85/plant) and spiders (0.76/plant) was recorded from sorghum as border crop with pigeonpea. The highest percent increase in above said natural enemies over sole crop was also recorded from sorghum as border crop treatment (755.6, 844.4 and 660). The highest pigeonpea yield (730.72 kg/ha) and per cent yield gain (65.81%) was also recorded with sorghum treatment. Among 5 weather parameters tested, day length (1.53) and relative humidity (-0.12) were found to influence the M. vitrata population significantly and its incidence was recorded from 41^st SMW to 47^th SMW.