Impact of synthetic and botanical insecticides on jassid (Amrasca biguttula) and their influence on cotton production

The research was conducted on the comparison of some synthetic and botanical insecticides against jassid on the cotton crop in the district Khairpur, Sindh. The four experiments were performed: Experiment-1, on five treatments: T1= Acephate, T2= Nitenpyram, T3= Boiled Neem Leaves extract, T4= Neem Oil extract, and T5= Control (unsprayed), which were replicated and applied four times at the ETL of jassid. Among the tested insecticides, Nitenpyram was proven highly effective and reduced the jassid population density % (81.65±5.21), followed by Neem Oil (65.75±8.44), Acephate (64.44±6.71), and Boiled Neem Leaves (55.20±17.11), while in the control plot, the mean population was (1.75±0.27). Experiment-2 was on the impact of natural enemies against jassid in the control plot, the overall results of the 6 fortnightly intervals showed the mean population of jassid per leaf and their natural enemies per plant as; (3.13, 1.19); (3.33, 2.02), (4.13, 2.07), (3.06, 1.38), (1.93, 0.73) and (1.56, 0.39), respectively. Whereas Experiments 3 and 4 were performed on green bolls’ weight and cotton production, respectively. The Neem Oil was found best with an average weight of the green boll (13.86 g) and production of 230 kgs, followed by Boiled Neem Leaves (12.73 g) with 212 kgs, Nitenpyram (11.38 g) with 178 kgs, Acephate (11.28 g) with 168 kgs, while in the control plot (10.51 g) with 150 kgs. So, both synthetic and botanical insecticides proved to be better in controlling cotton jassid, while botanical insecticides were found to be better in increasing green bolls’ weight and cotton production.