Management of Whitefly, Bemisia tabaci (Genn.) and Yellow Mosaic Virus Disease Infesting Blackgram, Vigna mungo (Linn)

Abstract

Background: Pulse crops have a unique position in sustainable crop production as they provide highly nutritive food and keep the soil alive as well as productive. They play an important role in the Indian agriculture economy being the major source of protein in Indian dietary. Due to its more luxurious growth and more vegetative canopy, number of insect pests and diseases attack from seedling to maturity stage especially sucking pests like whitefly (Bemisia tabaci Genn.), which is the vector of the drastic disease, yellow mosaic virus disease (YMD) and cause losses ranging from 30-80% per cent. Methods: The field experiment on the management of whitefly and yellow mosaic disease (YMD), was conducted by integrating different combination of insecticides and yellow sticky trap during Kharif, 2018 and 2019 at instructional farm of VBKVK, Udaipur. Seven treatments comprising of different combinations of seed treatments at the time of sowing, foliar spray at 30 and 45 DAG and yellow sticky traps were evaluated. Result: Among the different treatments, seed treatment with Imidacloprid 600 FS @ 5 ml/kg, first foliar spray of Diafenthuron 50 WP @ 0.1% and second foliar spray with Acetamiprid 20 SP @ 0.5 g/l at 30 and 45 DAS respectively + yellow sticky trap resulted in significantly less YMD incidence (18.91%) and the minimum mean whitefly population and highest seed yield of blackgram. The above treatment was followed by seed treatment with Imidacloprid 600 FS @ 5 ml/kg and two foliar spray of Acetamiprid 20 SP @ 0.5 g/l at 30 and 45 DAS + yellow sticky trap, which recorded 20.31% disease incidence of YMD and mean whitefly population of (3.77 and 1.44/plant, respectively after first and second spray) and black gram yield of 10.01 q/ha.