Abstract:
A field experiment was conducted at Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University, Dhaka to
investigate the effect of cropping system on the incidence of insect pests of potato and
associated other natural enemies during the period from October-2019 to April 2020
in Rabi season. The experiment consisted of eight treatments and laid out in
Randomized complete block design (RCBD) with three replications. Treatments viz.
T
1
= Potato+ Groundnut (Ic), T
2
= Potato+ sweet potato (Bc), T
= Potato+ Coriander
(Ic), T
4
= Potato+ Fenugreek (Bc), T
ii
5
= Potato+ Spinach (Bc), T
3
= Potato+ Coriander
(Bc), T
7
= Potato+ Radish (Bc) and T
8
6
= Sole potato (Control) where ground nut and
coriander were used as Intercrop (Ic) on other hand sweet potato, Fenugreek, spinach,
coriander as well as radish were used as Border crop (Bc). Data on different
parameters were collected for assessing results for this experiment. The overall result
indicate that both border and inter crop in potato field reduced the incidence of major
insect pest of potato comparing to sole cropping. The incidence of beneficial
arthropods was higher in border crops and intercropping systems. The minimum leaf
infestation by aphid, (4.74 %), white fly (2.12 %) and jassid (3.90 %) were recorded
in T
treatment. The highest number of beneficial arthropods per plant such as
pollinators like honey bee (124.33), carpenter bee (3.00), hover fly (5.80) and natural
enemies like lady bird beetle (2.84), dragon fly (1.68) and bird (1.56) sat on the stick
of bamboo were recorded in T
7
treatment. In term of edible yield and gross return, the
highest edible yield of potato (12.30 ton/ha) and gross return (373680 taka/ha) were
also recorded in T
7
7
treatment. The overall study of this experiment reveals that border
crops and intercropping systems reduced incidence of major insect pest of potato field
and border crops perform better than inter crop and significantly reduced pest
infestation without use of any chemicals insecticides.
Description:
A Thesis
Submitted to the Faculty of Agriculture,
Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University, Dhaka,
in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of
Prof. Dr. Tahmina Akter
Supervisor
MASTER OF SCIENCE (MS)
IN
ENTOMOLOGY
