MANUAL FOR PIGEONPEA PEST SURVEILLANCE National Initiative on Climate Resilient Agriculture Implementation : Natural Resources Management Division ICAR, New Delhi Project Coordination : Central Research Institute for Dryland Agriculture Hyderabad Pest Surveillance Coordination : National Centre for Integrated Pest Management New Delhi with Central Research Institute for Dryland Agriculture, Hyderabad and Indian Institute of Pulses Research, Kanpur NICRA Contributors Chitra N1, Suhas Yelshetty2, Malathi S3, Jyosthna MK4, Laxmi P Reddy4, Singh SK5, Chattopadhyay C5, Deshmukh GP6, Harer PN6, Chavan AP6, Bantewad SD7, Das SB8, Chandrashekara K9, Parmar RD10, Rao MS11, Prasad YG11, Prabhakar M11, Sharma OP12, Bhagat S12, Singh Niranjan12, Awasthi M12, Singh Dharmendra12, Sathyakumar S12, Agarwal M12, Singh Narendra12, Ghosh Vishal12, Kumari Alpana12 and Vennila S 12 1 Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Vamban, Tamil Nadu 2 Agricultural Research Station, Gulbarga, Karnataka 3 Regional Agricultural Research Station, Warangal, Andhra Pradesh 4 Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Anantapur, Andhra Pradesh 5 Indian Institute of Pulses Research (IIPR), Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh 6 Mahatma Phule Krishi Vidyapeeth, Rahuri, Maharashtra 7 Agricultural Research Station, Badnapur, Jalna, Maharashtra 8 Jawaharlal Nehru Krishi Vishwavidyalaya, Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh 9 Gandhi Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Bengaluru, Karnataka 10 S. D. Agricultural University, S. K. Nagar, Gujarat 11 Central Research Institute for Dryland Agriculture (CRIDA), Hyderabad 12 National Centre for Integrated Pest Management (NCIPM), New Delhi Published by Dr. O.M. Bambawale, Director NCIPM, New Delhi Dr. B. Venkateswaralu, Director CRIDA, Hyderabad Dr. N. Nadarajan, Director IIPR, Kanpur Dr. N.D. Majumdar, Project Coordinator IIPR, Kanpur Citation NICRA team of Pigeonpea Pest Surveillance, 2011. Manual for Pigeonpea Pest Surveillance. Jointly published by National Centre for Integrated Pest Management, New Delhi, Central Research Institute for Dryland Agriculture and Indian Institute of Pulses Research, Kanpur. 29 pp. Printed at M/s Royal Offset Printers, A-89/1, Naraina Industrial Area, Phase-I, New Delhi 110 028 NICRA Foreword Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) launched the National Initiative on Climate Resilient Agriculture (NICRA) during 2010-11 with three pronged objectives of strategic research, technology demonstrations and capacity building. Assessment of the impact of climate change simultaneous with formulation of adaptive strategies is the major focal point across all sectors of agriculture, dairying and fisheries. Evolving climate resilient agricultural technologies that would increase farm production and productivity vis-à-vis continuous management of natural and manmade resources constitute an integral part of sustaining agriculture in the era of climate change. Plant protection deserves prime importance in crop production because of the fact that potential yields of crops are limited by pest groups of various categories viz., insects, diseases, weeds, nematodes and rodents. Since pests are biotic natural resources of earth, their interdependent interactions amongst system variables are equally influenced by the factors of climate change. Climatic effects on pests could be direct as well as crop mediated. NICRA recognized the importance of pest risks associated with climate change and provided a research platform across crops of rice, pigeonpea, groundnut, tomato and mango during its first phase of implementation under eleventh plan. Assessing the changing pest scenario, mapping of vulnerable regions of pest risks and to evolve preventive as well as curative pest management strategies as adaptation towards climatic stress have been emphasized among many approaches to study of climate change impact on pests. The long term trend analysis of their association with climate is important. Most often the available historical data lack continuity and their holistic retrieval is cumbersome. Availability of information technological tools has made it possible to create centralized database of desired resources and associated activities with ease, in turn making scientific analyses and inferences more meaningful. In case of studies relating to pest dynamics, it is essential to streamline methods of surveillance through carefully designed data recording formats relating to crops, pests, and production and protection practices in addition to weather. Implementation of pest surveillance across ten different pigeonpea growing agro ecologies under NICRA offers per se heterogeneity of climate, upon comparison helps to draw the underlying mechanism of the observed pest status. Analyses with weather would further aid in delineating climate effects on pests. Making pest surveillance operational through provision of pest scouts and data entry operators render it possible to capture quality data at field level guided by scientific staff. NICRA Preparation of “Manual for Pigeonpea Pest Surveillance” has been a part of systematic attempt to give specific skills to the users to undertake sampling relating to pigeonpea pests. I appreciate the team work of the pigeonpea plant protection specialists of the nation, and wish that the research outcome would be useful for the present and future of pigeonpea pest management. ( Dr. A. K. Singh ) Deputy Director General, Natural Resource Management, ICAR, New Delhi NICRA Contents Foreword 1. Introduction 1 2. Surveillance plan and procedures 3 2.1. Selection of fixed fields 3 2.2. General information for fixed fields 4 2.3. Specific guidelines for observations in fixed fields 4 2.4. Pest observations 5 2.4.1. Insect pests Leaf folder 5 Helicoverpa armigera 5 Lablab pod borer 6 Blue butterfly 6 Plume moth 7 Maruca 7 Blister beetle 8 Ash weevil 8 Cow bug 9 Mealybugs 9 Scales 10 Pod bugs 11 2.4.2. Beneficials Coccinellids 12 Spiders 13 2.4.3. Damage to pods Pod damage due to Helicoverpa armigera 13 Pod damage due to pod fly 13 2.4.4. Diseases Fusarium wilt 14 Phytophthora blight 15 NICRA Sterility mosaic 15 Phyllody 16 Macrophomina stem canker 16 Alternaria blight 16 Powdery mildew 17 Cercospora leaf spot 18 2.5. Additional details to be recorded for fixed fields 2.5.1. Pheromone trap catches 18 2.5.2. Plant protection sprays 19 2.5.3. Fertilizer management 19 2.5.4. Weather events of the week 20 2.5.5. Grain damage at harvest Lepidopteran borers 20 Bruchids 20 Pod fly 20 Pod bugs 21 2.5.6. End season record of yield and price 21 2.6. Random field survey 2.6.1. Field selection for random survey 21 2.6.2. Guidelines for pest observations 21 3. Record of meteorological information 22 4. General instructions 22 Annexures I. Schedule for Surveillance 23 II. Data Sheet for General Information of Fixed Fields 24 III. Data Sheet for Pest Observations in Fixed and Random Fields 25 IV. Data Sheet for Meteorological Observations 28 V. Scientific Names of Important Pigeonpea Pests and Beneficials 29 Manual for Pigeonpea Pest Surveillance 1. Introduction Pigeonpea (Cajanus cajan (L.) Millsp.) is one of the most important legume crops of the tropics and subtropics of Asia and Africa. Pigeonpea, also known by names such as redgram, arhar and tur in India, offers nutritional security due to its richness in protein (21%) along with mineral supplements viz.,iron and iodine. India is the world’s largest producer and consumer of pulses including pigeonpea. About 90% of the global pigeonpea area (4.9 M.ha.) is in India contributing to 93% of the global production. Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Bihar are the major growing States of our country. Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, Odisha, Punjab and Haryana also grow the crop but in lesser area. India with its area of 3.75 million hectares produces 3.1 million tonnes with its productivity ranking ninth in the world. The productivity levels range from 360 to 1145 kg/ha owing to the cultivation of the crop on a wide range of soils in different cropping systems across varied agro climatic regions. Crop’s ability to resist drought and to add large quantities of biomass to the soil in addition to nitrogen fixation makes it a good choice for rainfed as well irrigated production systems. Kharif is the growing season of pigeonpea in India. Moisture stress and sudden drop in temperature coupled with frost and foggy weather during the pod development stage, and terminal drought cause yield reduction leading to instability in production. In the context of climate change, it has been revealed that legumes, in general and pigeonpea, in particular have the potential to maximize the benefit of elevated CO2 arising out of climate change effects by matching stimulated photosynthesis with increased nitrogen fixation. Such a positive result illustrates the importance of pigeonpea as a crop of sustained supporter of food and nutritional security under the climate change scenarios. Limitation to the increasing productivity of pigeonpea is also due to biotic stresses prevalent across the pulse growing regions. Among biotic stresses diseases viz., wilt, sterility mosaic and foliar diseases and insect pests feeding on pods lead to significant yield losses. Climate change is expected to trigger changes in diversity and abundance of arthropods, geographical and temporal distribution of insect pests, insect biotypes, herbivore plant interactions, activity and abundance of natural enemies, and efficacy of crop protection technologies. We expect both the crop in terms of phenology and physiology