Survey on dimensions of insecticide usage pattern and management of shoot and fruit borer, Leucinodes orbonalis (Guenee) in brinjal growing areas of Nellore District

The roving survey was conducted during 2018-19 using well structured questionnaire format to document insecticide usage pattern adopted by the farmers to manage Leucinodes orbonalis in five major brinjal growing mandals of Nellore District of Andhra Pradesh state. Among different group of insecticides belonging to slightly to highly hazardous toxicity class the highest usage of Chlrorantriniprole 18.5 SC (37.50%) was reported followed by Emamectin benzoate 5 SG (34.0%) and lowest usage of 6.50 per cent was reported Chlorpyriphos 20 EC, Tolfenpyrad 15%EC and Neem oil 1% EC in all mandals of Nellore District. The average number of insecticides application ranged from 16.10 to 28.32 rounds of sprays. Maximum numbers of 28.32 sprays was recorded from the Chammadapalem village of Gudur Mandal with an spray interval of 8.28 days and lowest number of sprays was recorded from Chillakuru village (16.10 sprays) with 5.84 days of spray interval. Around (62.0%) Farmers from different mandals approached pesticide retail shops to get information on pesticide recommendation and farmers (90.50%) did not pay attention towards label information given in pesticide containers. In different mandals, around 32.0 per cent of farmers sprayed pesticides at recommended dose and nearly 92.50 per cent famers carried spraying operations during morning hours and most of the farmers (63. 50%) used single insecticide for spraying. Around 34.0 per cent of the farmers did not follow any waiting period and harvested fruits on the same day after pesticide application. Majority of the farmers (82.0%) have done spraying only after observing initial symptoms and only (4.5%) have done spraying above ETL. In all the mandals (91.0%) farmers relied only on Insecticides and only 9.0 per cent famers followed cultural control methods for BSFB control.