~ 455 ~ Journal of Entomology and Zoology Studies 2017; 5(3): 455-462 E-ISSN: 2320-7078 P-ISSN: 2349-6800 JEZS 2017; 5(3): 455-462 © 2017 JEZS Received: 07-03-2017 Accepted: 08-04-2017 K Dinesh Department of Entomology, Rajasthan College of Agriculture Maharana Pratap University of Agriculture and Technology, Udaipur, India R Bharu Singh Department of Entomology, Rajasthan College of Agriculture Maharana Pratap University of Agriculture and Technology, Udaipur, India K Kavita Department of Entomology, Rajasthan College of Agriculture Maharana Pratap University of Agriculture and Technology, Udaipur, India Ghadir Hussain Department of Entomology, Rajasthan College of Agriculture Maharana Pratap University of Agriculture and Technology, Udaipur, India Correspondence K Dinesh Department of Entomology, Rajasthan College of Agriculture Maharana Pratap University of Agriculture and Technology, Udaipur, India Relative efficacy of newer insecticides and biopesticides against Helicoverpa armigera (hub.) in chickpea K Dinesh, R Bharu Singh, K Kavita and Choudhary RS Abstract A field study was conducted at instructional farm, Rajasthan College of Agriculture, MPUAT, Udaipur during Rabi 2013-14 and 2014-15 to evaluate the efficacy of insecticides and biopesticides against gram pod borer (Helicoverpa armigera H.) on chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) variety GNG 1581. T1 (Flubendiamide 480 SC @ 200 ml/ha) was most effective, which caused (70.31, 73.08 and 72.04) and (72.86, 75.97 and 72.84) highest mean percent reduction in population of gram pod borer larvae. It was followed by Indoxacarb 14.5 SC @ 500 ml/ha. The biopesticide treatment of T6 (HaNPV 200 LE @ 250 ml/ha) and T7 (Bt.k 8 L @ 1lit/ha) were least effective against gram pod borer. The highest seed yield of 22.78 and 24.53 q ha -1 was obtained from T1 (Flubendiamide 480 SC @200 ml/ha) and minimum yield 16.00 and 15.20 q ha -1 was recorded in T9 (HaNPV- Bt.K- Bt.K @ 250LE-1Lit-1Lit/ha), during rabi 2013-14 and 2014-15. The highest benefit: cost ratio of 1.26 and 1.42 was recorded in T1 (Flubendiamide 480 SC @200 ml/ha) and minimum benefit cost ratio 1.03 and 1.04 was recorded in T9 (HaNPV- Bt.K- Bt.K @ 250LE-1Lit-1Lit/ha, during rabi 2013-14 and 2014-15. Keywords: Chickpea, Helicoverpa armigera, efficacy, insecticides and biopesticides Introduction Chickpea, Cicer arietinum L., is a very important legume crop that belongs to family Fabaceae, cultivated in many countries of the world, and comprises 20% of the world legumes production [1] . It is the most important crop with high acceptability and wider use. Besides being rich in protein, its ability to enrich the soil fertility by fixing large quantities of atmospheric nitrogen with the help of symbiotic bacteria mainly Rhizobium species is economically sounder and environmentally acceptable [2] . It has high nutritive value and enriched with vegetable protein, carbohydrate, cholesterol lowering fiber, oil, ash, calcium and phosphorus [26] . Chickpea plant is under threat of many insect pests that attack on its roots, foliage and pods. It is infested by 57 species of insect pests and other arthropods in India; however, the major insect pest of chickpea is the gram pod borer, Helicoverpa armigera (Hubner) (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) which is the most noxius, polyphagous, multivoltine and cosmopolitan pest [3] has resulted in substantial yield loss (37-50%) and in severe cases up to 90% pod damage [4, 5] .The wider host range, multiple generations, migratory behaviour, resistance against many conventional insecticides and high fecundity makes gram pod borer difficult to manage. These losses can be reduced by the application of newer insecticides with different chemistry [6, 7] . Farmers of Asian countries in most cases solely depend on insecticides for the management of the pest. Over-dependence of a particular group of chemicals is one of the important reasons for rapid development of resistance. Among the several avenues to overcome the insecticidal resistance problem, replacement with new molecules of insecticide, use of bio pesticides and their combination is one of the important considerations. Keeping in view the severe attack of gram pod borer, the present study aimed to evaluate the efficacy insecticides and bio-pesticides against H. armigera in chickpea. 2. Materials and Methods 2.1 Experimental details: Treatments and design of layout The experiment was conducted at instructional farm, Rajasthan College of Agriculture, Udaipur during 2013-14 and 2014-15 in a Randomized Block Design (R.B.D.) with ten treatments, each consisting of three replicates. The total number of plots was 30. The chickpea seeds of variety ‘GNG1581’ were sown in plots of size 3.6m x 3.6 m with row spacing 30 cm and plant to plant distance 10 cm.