382 Journal of Eco-friendly Agriculture 20(2) 2025 doi: 10.48165/jefa.2025.20.2.20 Eco-friendly management of gram pod borer, Helicoverpa armigera in chickpea Journal of Eco-friendly Agriculture 20(2): 382-386. 2025 doi: 10.48165/jefa.2025.20.2.20 ©2025 ISSN : 2229-628X (print) e-ISSN : 2582-2683 (online) Eco-friendly management of gram pod borer, Helicoverpa armigera in chickpea Ajeet Kumar Singh 1 , Devendra Kumar Yadav 1 , Akhileshwar Vishwakarma 2 *, Buts Kumar Gourav 3 and Pratiksha Dwivedi 1 1 Department of Entomology, Baba Raghav Das Post Graduate College, Deoria-274001, Uttar Pradesh 2 ICAR-National Research Centre for Makhana, Darbhanga-846005, Bihar 3 Sai Nath University, Ranchi-835219, Jharkhand *Corresponding authore-mail: iakrdeos@gmail.com ABSTRACT The field investigation, conducted during 2022-23 (rabi season) in Randomized block design with 3 replications at Agricultural Research Farm of Baba Raghav Das Post-Graduate College, Deoria, UP to evaluate efficacy of botanical insecticides (i.e. neem leaf extracts @ 100 ml L –1 , eucalyptus oil @ 25 ml L –1 , lemongrass leaf extract @ 50 ml L –1 , neem baan (azadirachtin 0.15 EC) @ 4 ml L –1 , neem oil @ 5 ml L –1 , and chinaberry seed extract @ 50 ml L –1 ) along with one chemical insecticide (spinotoram 11.7 per cent SC @ 0.25 ml L –1 ) over the Pusa-261 chickpea variety revealed that the insecticide spinotoram 11.7 per cent SC and the botanical neem oil was found superior against H. armigera in chickpea, respectively. Rest of the botanicals also showed significant effect over control. Maximum yield was recorded from the plots treated with spinotoram 11.7 per cent SC with grain yield of 0.28 Kg plot –1 followed by neem oil (0.26 Kg plot –1 ) as compared to the control (0.11 Kg plot –1 ). Key words: Pod borer, management, botanicals, treatments, spinotoram 11.7 per cent SC, ecofriendly and leaf extracts Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.), commonly known as Gram or Bengal Gram, is the most important pulse crop of family leguminaceae (Fabaceae) and originated in South- eastern Turkey. According to De Candolle, the fact that gram has a Sanskrit name “Chanaka” which indicates that the crop was under cultivation in India longer than in any other country in the world (Gowda et al., 2007). It is adapted to relatively colder season. The largest area of cultivation is in the Indian sub-continent producing 11.91 million tons of chickpea from 9.99 million ha with an average productivity level of 1192 kg ha –1 (DES, GoI, 2020-21). However, chickpea production is not fully achieved amid different biotic and abiotic stresses (Chaturvedi et al., 2018). Among biotic factors, diseases, insect pests, nematodes, birds and vertebrates harm the crop but damage due to insects is more striking than others. Nearly 60 insect species are known to feed on chickpea. In eastern Uttar Pradesh the major insect pests which attack chickpea crop are mainly H. armigera, Spodoptera litura, Agrotis ipsilon, Plusia orichalsia (Fab.) and Bemisia tabaci. Among these, the chickpea pod borer (H. armigera) is the most destructive causing yield losses from 6.88 to 50 per cent in different localities of Uttar Pradesh (Singh et al., 2008) and 50-100 per cent in favorable weather conditions, particularly when there are frequent rains and cloudy weather during the cropping seasons (Saminathan et al., 2003). Pest management in the developing countries like India mainly depend upon use of chemical pesticides as they are the most reliable and economical but indiscriminate use of them resulted in a series of problems in the agroecosystem viz., resistance, resurgence and the residue (Sundaramurthy and Basu, 1990). The H. armigera was reported to have developed resistance against organophosphates and carbamates in many countries of Asia (Kranthi et al., 2002). Insecticide application for pod borer is also uneconomical under subsistence farming and largely beyond the means of resource poor farmers. The failure of modern tactics has compelled the scientific community to go back to the traditional and indigenous products for tackling the pest problem. The increasing concern of environmental awareness against pesticide hazards has evoked worldwide interest in the use of bio-agents and pesticides of plant origin. These biocontrol agents and botanical pesticides are safer to be used in pest control programmes and may prevent several adverse effects caused by synthetic insecticides (Rajsekaran and Kumarswamy, 1985). Based on these concepts, the study was conducted to assess the effectiveness of various botanicals for managing pod borer in the chickpea ecosystem.