Effective Crop Protection techniques for Paddy against Green Leaf Hopper:
India’s association with Rice, dates back to 1800 BC when “rice” is mentioned in the Sanskrit scriptures like Yajur Veda. We have archeological evidence dating back to almost 6000 BC which proves that rice was widely cultivated in the Ganges valley and nurturing our ancient civilizations. This scenario has not changed even today with 50% of the Indian population depending on this versatile crop for their sustenance.
Looking at the reports, India is the second largest producer of Rice, second only to China (which is again a rice-consuming society). India’s Rice production constitutes to almost 21% of the world’s total production. Being a tropical country, the hot and humid climate of India makes it ideal for the cultivation of rice. Rice cultivation in India is predominantly seen in rainfed areas where the rainfall is more than 100cm and the temperature is 25 degree Celsius.
The tropical weather of India also contributes to creating a conducive environment for unwanted adversaries like pests. This blog discusses in detail about one of the important pests that attack rice crops namely, Green Leaf Hopper.
Rice Crop Management against Green Leaf Hopper:
Identification of Green Leaf Hopper:
Identification of Green Leaf Hoppers are very critical for maintaining healthy and pest free rice fields and for getting a bountiful yield, since they play an important role in spreading a viral disease called Tungro. The virus of the Tungro disease are transmitted from one plant to another by green leafhoppers. When the green hoppers feed on the virus-infected plant sap they become vectors and transmit the virus to other healthy plants. They destroy the paddy leaves by extracting and feeding on the leaf sap. They have needle-shaped mouth parts which helps them in extracting the plant sap.
These pests are transparent greenish colored during their egg stage, yellowish white in nymph stage and bright green with black marking during adult stage.
A typically affected plant shows:
- Yellowing of leaves from tips to downwards
- Plants exhibit stunted growth with decreased vitality
- Plants have less number of productive tillers
- The leaf sheaths are wilting or weathering because of extraction of plant sap and hence gives a completely dried texture.
- Plants infested with green leaf hopper pests are predisposed to bacterial and fungal infections.
Simple Agronomic Techniques:
- Crop Rotation – Cultivating rice crops for not more than 2 seasons and alternating with other crops like Soya will help in reducing the pest attack.
- Usage of pest resilient seed varieties like IR 50, IR 54, IR 64, CR 1009, and PY 3 will stop the infestation to a great extent.
- Using biopesticides like applying neem cake as basal dose with the dosage of 12.5kg / 20 cent of cultivation can also help in warding off the pesticides
- Seedlings that are older than 3 weeks have to be transplanted for reducing their vulnerability to disease infestation.
- Spraying the optimum amount of nitrogen is also very crucial as insufficient quantity might hinder plant recovery.
- The bunds have to be cleaned of any vegetation so that they don’t become the harboring place for the pests.
- Maintaining proper field hygiene practices by removing crop residues and weeds from previous season will go a long way in reducing the multiplication of the pests.
Chemical methods:
- CARBAN S (Carbofuran 3%sg) is broadcast sprayed in the fields with 1.4kg/ 8 cents with 25cm of water in the fields
- Whenever the ETL (Economic Threshold Level) of the pests increases then any of the following pesticides can be sprayed.
- The pesticides should be sprayed twice at the interval of 15 and 30 days after transplanting. The dosage given below is for per acre.
- CLASS 1.5%D (chlorpyriphos),
- CLASS 10G (chlorpyriphos 10% GR),
- QUINOLUX (quinalphos 25%ec) 400ml,
- CARBAN S(carbofuran 3%) 10kg,
- SHREE SHOGUN (Imidacloprid 17.8 %sl) 40-50ml,
- ACCTRA (thiamethoxam 25% wg) 40gm,
- REDEEM (fipronil 5% sc) 400-600gm,
- SHREETHENE GOLD (acephate 50 % + imidacloprid 1.8 % SP) 400gm.
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Some more tips:
- Setting up light traps to attract the moths which are generally active during dusk or night
- Appropriate pheromone traps can be set up and changed every 15 – 20 days. Proper care should be taken while setting up pheromone traps and the insects collected in the traps should be properly disposed off. One should wash their hands clean every time after handling the pheromone traps.
- After proper research biological predators traps can also be set up. But this should be done only with expert, which will otherwise have adverse effect.
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Read our blog on sugarcane crop protection against different “borer pests“.