Vol. 11, Special Issue 4 (2022)

Author(s):
S Panda and Raghunandan H

Abstract:
Plant hopper causes substantial losses to both dry and wet season rice in India necessitating increased dependency on chemical pesticides contributing to environmental pollution. It is hypothesized that application of silicon can enhance the level of efficacy of insecticides by inducing resistance in the crop against these sucking pests and minimize the use of harmful pesticides. A field trial was carried out in Odisha University of Agriculture and Technology during rabi’ 2017 to evaluate the performance of combined action of insecticides and diatomaceous earth, an organic source of silicon, applied at 300 kg ha^-1 as basal one day before transplanting in comparison to the silicate fertilizer alone as standard check and untreated control. The experiment could establish the resistance inducing ability of diatomaceous earth and its compatibility with dinotefuran and acephate in arresting the hopper build up to 4.37 to 7.60 hill^-1 compared to 22.47 hill^-1 in rice. Spraying of acephate alone failed miserably in controlling this pest with a maximum incidence of 19.60 hill^-1 but showed synergistic action when combined with the silicate fertilizer reducing the hopper population to 2.00 hill^-1 as against 2.57 and 34.33 hill^-1 in standard check and untreated control respectively thus, exhibiting the importance of combined action of exogenous application of silicon and acephate in reducing hopper severity in rice.