Pest Management in Grain Legumes: Potential and Limitations

Abstract

Grain legumes such as chickpea, pigeonpea, cowpea, field pea , lentil, ,
 and Phaseolus beans are the principal source of dietary protein among vegetarians,
 and are an integral part of daily diet in several forms worldwide. They are an
 important component of cropping systems to maintain soil fertility because of
 their ability to fix atmospheric nitrogen, extract water and nutrients from the
 deeper layers of the soil as compared to cereals, and add organic matter into the
 soil through leaf drop. However, grain legumes are mainly grown under rainfed
 conditions and the productivity levels are quite low mainly because of severe
 losses due to insect pests and diseases. Average grain yield of pulses (0.86 t/
 ha) is only about onefourth
 the average yields of cereals (3.54 t/ha). Production
 and productivity of grain legumes is constrained by several biotic and abiotic
 factors, and suffer an average of 31.9 to 69.6% loss in crop productivity due to
 insects, diseases, drought, weeds, and soil fertility. Pod borers (Helicoverpa
 and Maruca), Fusarium wilts, viral diseases, Ascochyta blight and Botrytis gray
 mold (Chen et al., 2011)