Effect of Intercropping on Insect Pests of Groundnut and their Natural Enemies

In tropics, intercropping has been an important component of small farm agriculture (Lamb, 1978) and one of the reasons for the evolution of these cropping patterns may be the reduced incidence of insect pests (Altieri et al., 1978). Kennedy and Raveendran (1989) reported that groundnut intercropped with pearl millet reduced the incidence of leafminer, leaf hopper and thrips substantially. The results on the effect of intercropping pearl millet with groundnut on the population of leafminer, leaf hopper and thrips and the activity of their natural enemies are reported hereunder.