Economic Impacts of Using Botanicals Against Rice Weevils Infestation During Storage

The research work was designed to investigate the management of the most damaging rice pest, the angoumois grain moth, Sitotrogacerealella (Olivier) by following some commonly practiced techniques. During the present study, the efficacy of different types of containers viz. plastic pots, tin pots, earthen pots and polyester bags, different types of botanicals viz. neem leaf powder, mango leaf powder, mahogany leaf powder and chopped garlic was tested. Plastic container was found the most suitable to protect the rice grain infestation in storage against rice moth in laboratory condition than tin pot, earthen pot and polyester bag., While Plastic container tested along with botanicals, had reduced 69.51% rice grain infestation, 63.96% adult emergence, 46.49% grain content loss and increased 43.13% seed germination over polyester bag followed by tin pot, which reduced 55.05% grain infestation, 46.59% adult emergence, 24.87% grain content loss and increased 40.43% seed germination. The earthen pot reduced 37.88% grain infestation, 41.57% adult emergence, 8.87% grain content loss and increased 31.48% seed germination over the polyester bag. The dried neem leaf powder was observed the most effective to protect the rice grain infestation in storage against rice moth in laboratory condition than mango leaf, mahogany leaf and garlic bulb. Dried neem leaf had reduced 74.31% rice grain infestation, 71.96% adult emergence, 67.46% grain content loss and increased 41.00% seed germination over control followed by garlic bulb, which reduced 68.51%% grain infestation, 68.38% adult emergence, 58.77% grain content loss and increased 35.47% seed germination. The mahogany leaf reduced 66.03% grain infestation, 65.04% adult emergence, 53.72% grain content loss and increased 35.03% seed germination. The mango leaf also reduced 50.28% grain infestation, 54.33% adult emergence, 42.19% grain content loss and increased 23.00% seed germination. The inclusion level of neem leaf @ 2.5 gm/kg rice grains based management practice was indicate the most economically viable rice moth in storage that gave the highest (11.3) benefit-cost ratio (BCR) followed by dried mahogany leaf (9.76), garlic bulb (8.31) and mango leaf (6.72).