Legume Research

Ecological maneuvering of major sucking insect pests of cowpea, [Vigna unguiculata (Linn.) Walp.] at the micro level was aimed through various agronomic techniques. The tactics of appropriate intercropping is gaining thrust in the present scenario in overall strategy of insect pest management.

The experiment was conducted during kharif, 2018 in a randomized block design (RBD) with 5 treatments and 4 replications. The populations of major sucking insect pests were recorded at weekly interval from their appearance till harvesting of the cropearly in the morning of 10 cm terminal shoot for aphid and from three leaves, viz., one each from top, middle and lower canopy of the plant for leafhopper and whitefly.

The experiment on cowpea [Vigna unguiculata (Linn.) Walp.] grown along with, pearlmillet [Penisetum glucum (Linn.) R.Br.emend stunntz] sesame, (Sesamum indicum,) sorghum (Sorghum bicolor) and cluster bean (Cyamopsis tetragonloba) as intercrops showed reduced population of sucking insect pests (aphid, Aphis craccivora Koch, leafhopper, Empoasca fabae (Harris) and whitefly, Bemisia tabaci (Genn.) over the sole crop (cowpea), cowpea with pearlmillet and sorghum combinations proved significantly less conducive to aphid, leafhopper and whitefly infestation as compared to other intercrops.