Field Evaluation of Beauveria bassianb and Metarhizium anisopliae against the Cutworm, Agrotis ipsilon (Hufnagel) Damaging Potato in Uttarakhand Hills

Abstract

Field experiments were conducted at crop research center (Gaja) of College of Forestry and Hill Agriculture, GBPUA&T, Ranichauri during the year 2006-2009 to test the effectiveness of entomopathogenic fungi, Beauveria bassiana and Metarhizium anisopliae in comparison with an chlorpyriphos against cutworm, Agrotis ipsilon on potato. Lowest tuber damage (15.6%) was recorded in treatment of M. anisopliae (5.0x1011 spores/g) followed by B. bassiana (5.0x109 spores/g) with tuber damage of 17.82% as compared to control (31.82%). Highest yield of 126.97 q ha-1 was recorded in M. anisopliae treatment. However, among all the treatments, chlorpyriphos was found to be the most effective at lowest tuber damage (8.80%) with 142.01 q ha-1 yield while in control it was 65.78 q ha-1. Cost benefit ratio also revealed that application of higher dosage of M. anisopliae proved most effective followed by B. bassiana.