Losses Caused by Major Insect Pests of Trangenic Cotton with Special Reference to Pink Bollworm

Abstract:

The experiments were conducted for the estimation of yield losses due to major insect pests of transgenic cotton with special reference to pink bollworm, Pectinophora gossypiella, at the research farm, Department of Agricultural Entomology, College of Agriculture, VNMKV, Parbhani during the years 2019-20 and 2020-21. The newly introduced transgenic cotton hybrid NHH-44 was grown on the plot size of 3.6 m x 3.00 m with a spacing of 90 cm x 60 cm in Paired Plot Design with two treatments and fourteen replications. The studies on avoidable losses due to major insect pests of the transgenic cotton indicated that significant differences were observed in percent damage infestation due to pink, American bollworm, and sucking pest population under protected and unprotected conditions. The data revealed that a significantly higher seed cotton yield of 17.85q/ha was recorded from protected plots however, a yield of 9.25q/ha was recorded from unprotected plots. This showed that 51.85 per cent increase in yield and 48.15 per cent avoidable loss. The results indicated that by providing protection with effective insecticides against bollworm and sucking pests complex of transgenic cotton the yield loss can be saved up to 8.60q/ha. The effects of different treatments on transgenic cotton hybrid NHH-44 indicated that all the lint quality parameters, as well as oil percentage, were significantly superior in protected conditions over the unprotected condition.