Impact of organic and conventional practices on rice yellow stem borer Scirpophaga incertulas (Walker) and its egg parasitoids Prasanthi Golive, Dey Debjani*, Shivay Y S Division of Entomology, Division of Agronomy, ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi, 110012 *Email: ddeyiari@hotmail.com (corresponding author)
Online published on 18 April, 2020. Abstract Organic farming, cultivation without pesticides and fertilizers promotes plant and animal diversity including insects. The present study conducted at the research farm of the ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi evaluates the impact of organic and conventional IPM practices against rice yellow stem borer (YSB) Scirpophaga incertulas (Walker) (Crambidae: Lepidoptera). Infestation at different stages of the crop and the efficiency of its egg parasitoids were assessed. Results indicated that infestation was more in conventional (0.59%) than the organic practice (0.47%). Three egg parasitoids observed include: Telenomus dignus Gahan, Tetrastichus schoenobii Ferriere, and Trichogramma japonicum Ashmead in both the practices, and all these are new records for the Delhi/NCR region. Maximum parasitization was observed with T. dignus (6.59%) followed by T. japonicum (0.58%) and T. schoenobii (0.42%), and it was during October. Egg parasitization was more in the organic practice (3.27±3.08) compared to the conventional one (1.18±0.99). The results reveal that T. dignus is the most dominant among the parasitoids observed. Top Keywords Rice, organic practices, yellow stem borer, egg parasitoids, Delhi, new records, parasitization, Telenomus dignus, dominance. Top |