UTTAR PRADESH JOURNAL OF ZOOLOGY

Rice is a major staple crop in India, contributing significantly to national food security, but its productivity is severely affected by insect pests, particularly stem borers that can cause substantial yield losses throughout crop growth stages. Given the ecological and economic impact of stem borers, there is a need for effective and eco-friendly management strategies, including the use of granular insecticides along with cultural and mechanical control practices to minimize yield loss while conserving natural enemies. The field trials were carried out at Research Farm, JNKVV-College of Agriculture, Balaghat, Madhya Pradesh under randomized Block design with seven treatments and three replications to evaluate the insecticidal molecules with granular formulation against stem borer  in rice. All the insecticides significantly reduced the incidence of stem borers andminimized the yield loss. All the insecticidal treatments were found significantly superior over untreated control with respect to percent dead heart and white earhead symptoms at the vegetative stage and reproductive stage, respectively. The overall mean of percent dead heart and white earhead among all the insecticidal treatments, the minimum percent dead heart and white earhead were provided by chlorantraniliprole followed by fipronil over untreated control. The highest percent dead heart and white earhead were recorded in the untreated control plot. The yield attribute parameters exhibited that the chlorantraniliprole 0.4 G @ 10 kg/ha gave a maximum yield with a higher number of tillers and grains as compared to untreated control. The fipronil 0.3 G @ 25 kg/ha and Carbofuran 3 G @ 25 kg/ha were recorded next better treatments because they obtained more yield after chlorantraniliprole, which was at par with each other. Whereas, more number of tillers were noted from fipronil and farmers practice i.e.Chlorpyrifos 50 EC + Cypermethrin 5% EC @ 1.2 litre/ha and more numbers of grains were recorded from fipronil and cartap hydrochloride. The minimum yield was recorded from untreated control plot with the lowest number of tillers and grains. Therefore, it could be said that chlorantraniliprole was the most economically effective treatment for the control of steam water and leaf folder by the highest cost benefit ratio. The next better treatment was recorded by fipronil cost benefit ratio and increased additional yield over untreated control.