Efficacy of Granular Insecticide against Yellow Stem Borer (Scirpophaga incertulas) on Basmati Rice

Field experiments were conducted during kharif 2014–15 and 2015–16 seasons on Pusa Basmati 1121 to evaluate the efficacy and economy of granular insecticide against stem borer. The efficacy of 5 insecticides, viz., regent 0.3G (fipronil) @ 15 kg/ha, ferterra 0.4 GR (chlorantraniliprole) @ 10kg/ha, padan 4G (cartap hydrochloride) @25kg/ha, foratox 10G (phorate)@ 12.5kg/ha, dursban 10 G (chlorpyriphos) @10kg/ha besides insecticidal check dursban 10 G (chlorpyriphos) @10kg/ha and untreated control was evaluated against Yellow Stem Borer. The stem borer infestation, i.e. white ears varied between 5.54 to 8.20 per cent over the kharif seasons. The results on stem borer infestation and yield indicated that all the granular insecticidal treatments were significantly superior to untreated control but these insecticides differed from each other with respect to their cost. Regent 0.3G (fipronil) @ 15 kg/ha followed by the ferterra 0.4 GR (chlorantraniliprole) @ 10kg/ha and padan 4G (cartap hydrochloride) @25kg/ha with 5.88, 6.48 and 6.68 average YSB infestation; and 19.87, 18.25 and 17.125q/ha average grain yields, respectively, were effective against YSB on basmati rice and increasing its yield but regent 0.3G had its additional advantage over ferterra 0.4GR and padan 4G as far as its cost of application in the field was concerned. The average cost of application of regent 0.3G, ferterra 0.4G and padan 4G comes out to be Rs. 1163/-ha, Rs. 1975/-ha and Rs. 2000/-ha i.e. one has to spend this much amount of money to get rid of the pest from an area of one hectare and hence, regent must be recommended to farmers keeping in view its efficacy.