Evaluation of biointensive pest management modules against brinjal shoot and fruit borer, Leucinodes orbonalis Guenee (Lepidoptera: Crambidae) under precision farming system

Biointensive pest management practices to manage brinjal shoot and fruit borer, Leucinodes orbonalis Guen. under precision farming system was evaluated. The results revealed that the biointensive approaches recorded lowest shoot and fruit damage of 9.06 and 16.53% during kharif and 9.46 and 15.06% during rabi season respectively. The bio-rational approaches recorded 16.80 and 18.00% shoot damage and 22.93 and 23.60% fruit damage during kharif and rabi season respectively. The mean shoot and fruit damage was 11.40 & 11.46% and 16.93 and 17.20% for farmers practice during kharif and rabi seasons respectively. The biointensive, bio-rational and farmers practice recorded benefit cost ratio of 9.14, 5.68 and 7.05 during kharif and 9.10, 5.43 and 7.22 BCR during rabi season. More reliance on insecticides led to increased cost of cultivation and environmental pollution in the farmers' practice which inturn reduces the export potential of the produce. Hence the farmers can effectively use the biointensive pest management strategies for the management of shoot and fruit borer in brinjal.