Abstract

Field experiments were conducted during kharif 2010-11 and 2011-12 at Agricultural Research Station, UAS, Dharwad, Karnataka, South India to assess the effect of border and barrier cropping for the management of chilli pests. Chilli as border and barrier crop with South African tall maize and sweet sorghum was found to be superior over sole crop by recording the lowest population of sucking pests, leaf curl index, larval population of H. armigera, fruit damage and significantly higher growth parameters as well as dry chili yield (3.95 and 3.89q/ha) with a net return of Rs 19,528/- and CB ratio 1 2.56. Activity of predators such as coccinellids and chrysopids were found to be greatly distributed in plots having border and barrier crops.

Keywords: Border and Barrier cropping, Fruit borer damage, Helicoverpa armigera, Leaf curl index, Predators, Sucking pests