Occurrence Of New Pest And Disease In Ramie (Boehmeria NiveaL. Gaud) Germplasm Under North Eastern Conditions

Abstract

Ramie (Boehmeria nivea L. Gaud) is being considered as an oldest and valuable fibre crop of the country and it is well known for the strongest and longest natural fibre in the world today. It also possesses highest strength, good durability and absorbency. It is a semiperenial crop and mainly grown in temperate and tropical areas In India it is a traditional fibre crop of northeast state. Although pests and diseases in ramie was not a major problem in India due to scattered and very limited area under ramie cultivation. Now a day due to change in climatic condition and also increase in the area of cultivation, the ramie crop is suffering heavily from disease and insect pest which are causing heavy losses in yield and quality of fibre and fodder. Also due to availability of very less information about diseases and insect pest there is need to be indexing, identification and documentation of important diseases and insect pest of ramie and there integrated management in this climate changing scenario. So, the above experiment was planned to identify and documentation of important diseases and insects pest of perennial nature of ramie fiber crop occurred throughout the year. Survey and surveillance of important diseases and insect pest of ramie were carried out in different fields of RRS, Sorbhog and at ramie plantation sites at upper Assam throughout the year during 2011–2014. The diseases such as Cercospora leaf spot, anthrancnose leaf spot, Curvularia leaf Blight, damping off and yellow mosaic were found to be the prominent diseases of ramie crop in the northeastern conditions. Among the insect pest, several insect pest viz., Indian red admiral caterpillar, leaf beetle, leaf eating caterpillar, epilachna beetle, yellow coaster butterfly, leaf folder, white grub and termites have been observed as an important insect pest of ramie.