Determination of ETL for Major Pests in Betelvine

Abstract

The plantation crop, Betel vine (Piper betle L.) is one of the most important cash crops in India. Major crop-loss (betel vine crop) occurs owing to the damage caused by white fly (Singhiella palled) and black fly (Aleurocanthus rugosa), and as such these are considered as the most harmful pests in respect of the damage caused by them. The quantum of damage is determined by calculating economic injury level (EIL) and economic threshold level (ETL). Knowledge of ETL helps to reduce crop loss (and ensures less pesticide application), and as a consequence, profit is increased. Also substantial knowledge is required on the dynamics of the pest population in order to determine the density at which the EIL may be prevented. This communication is devoted to the development of a method for determination of ETL in case of the plantation crop, betel vine. As the knowledge of ETL is Vital to the farmers, this article presents a systematic method to determine the ETL from a special type of experiment on betel vine designed for this purpose. The existing method of determination is based on economic parameters (Weersink et al. in Can J Agric Econ 39(4):619–625, 1991) which are subject to local, temporal and spatial variation. The developed method is divested of the above-mentioned variations and depends on the features of pest-infestation data solely.