Journal of Scientific Research and Reports

Gram pod borer, Helicoverpa armigera (Hübner), is a major destructive pest of chickpea causing considerable yield losses throughout India. Given its importance, an experiment was conducted to evaluate different pest management modules for their efficacy against H. armigera in chickpea. Pest management modules viz., bio-intensive module, Integrated Pest Management (IPM) module and chemical-intensive module were developed and evaluated under field conditions during the rabi seasons of 2024-25 and 2025-26. The IPM module consisted of marigold as a border crop; installation of bird perches at 50/ha; spraying of Bacillus thuringiensis 1% WG @ 20 g/10 litres of water at 30 DAS; spraying of Neem Seed Kernel Extract (NSKE) 5% @ 500 g/10 litres of water at 45 DAS; and spraying of chlorantraniliprole 18.5 SC 0.006% @ 3 ml/10 litres of water at 60 DAS. Of the evaluated modules, the lowest larval population (1.54 larvae/10 plants) and pod damage (13.78%) as well as the highest seed yield (2345 kg/ha) and ICBR (1:10.92) were recorded in the Integrated Pest Management (IPM) module. The chemical intensive module with moderate efficacy stood second in suppressing the pest, whereas the bio-intensive module, despite recording the lowest pest-suppression efficacy among the three modules, registered the second-highest ICBR (1:10.39), higher than that of the chemical intensive module (1:6.05), owing to the comparatively low cost of bio-pesticidal inputs.