Screening of Some Long Duration Pigonpea (Cajanus cajan (L.) Millsp.) Genotypes against Major Insect Pests in Varanasi

Pigeonpea (Cajanus cajan (L.) Millsp.), an important grain-legume of semi arid tropics is severely attacked by many insect species, resulting in losses of quantity and nutritional quality. In the present study, fifteen long duration genotypes of pigeonpea were assessed against the attack of M. obtusa, C. gibbosa and H. armigera for two years (2017-2018 and 2018-19) in Varanasi. Resistance to pigeonpea genotypes was evaluated by measuring pod and grain damage per cent in accordance with their yields. Pest susceptibility rating revealed that none of the genotypes fell in resistant/highly-resistant categories. However, genotypes IVT-705, IVT-706 and IVT-907 were found to least susceptible for all the three insect pests (except for IVT-907 for C. gibbosa) and also showed higher yields. In other words, yield losses were lower in genotypes which shown less pod/grain damage by insects. Pod damage of some other genotypes viz. IVT-208 (M. obtusa-31.3%, C. gibbosa-12.6%, H. armigera¬-4.8%), IVT-12-904 (M. obtusa-29.5%, C. gibbosa-12.8%, H. armigera¬-7.3%) also accounted for their lower levels of susceptibility to the insect pest complex.