Manipulating Rice Planting Geometry and Nutrient Levels has an Effect on Brown Planthopper, Nilaparvata lugens (Stål) (Hemiptera: Delphacidae) Incidence
Manipulating Rice Planting Geometry and Nutrient Levels has an Effect on Brown Planthopper, Nilaparvata lugens (Stål) (Hemiptera: Delphacidae) Incidence
Ch. Muhammad Rafiq1, Muhammad Rizwan1*, Bilal Atta1, Arshed Makhdoom Sabir1, Misbah Rizwan2, Muhammad Arshad3, Muhammad Zeeshan3, Hamza Latif3, Usama Bin Khalid1, Shawaiz Iqbal1
ABSTRACT
Rice is best known as a staple food for half of the world’s population. Brown planthopper, Nilaparvata lugens (Stål) (Hemiptera: Delphacidae) is a serious insect pest of rice crops throughout Asia. In case of a severe attack, the whole crop turns brown called ‘hopperburn’ and farmers face great yield losses. The experiments were performed to evaluate the planting geometry and nutritional effects on N. lugens abundance and yield attributes of the crop using susceptible rice (var. Basmati 515). Results indicated that planting geometries with more space (60 and 90 cm) after 12 lines with a uniform number of plants in each plot had less incidence of N. lugens as compared to narrow spaced (0 and 30 cm) geometries. More number of N. lugens nymphs (80.0-95.0 number/plant) were recorded with less spaced planting geometry as compared to higher spaced planting geometry (27.0-29.5 numbers/plant) during both years. With different planting geometry, no significant difference was recorded in the agronomic parameters except yield and 1000 grain weight. The highest yield was recorded in a plot with 90 cm path followed by 60, 30 and 0cm path, respectively. Towards different doses of nitrogen and phosphorus on N. lugens, the higher dose of nitrogen had a significant effect on N. lugens nymph survival, adult emergence and survival, while the phosphorus induced a non-significant effect. Therefore, in the absence of N. lugens resistant variety, ecological manipulation and nutrients availability could be a better strategy for short-term N. lugens management in organic rice production.
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