ROLE OF GURDASPUR BORER (BISSETIA STENIELLUS HAMPSON) IN SUGARCANE RATOON CROP FAILURE AND ITS INTEGRATED CONTROL AT MARDAN

Gurdaspur borer causes great losses to sugarcane especially ratoon crop. On one way it damages the crop and on the other way its infestations paves way for certain diseases like red rot, stem rot and ratoon stunting disease. Experiments were conducted at Sugar Crops Research Institute, Mardan during 2003-2004 in sugarcane ratoon crops with the objective to see the effect of different control measures i.e. Mechanical (T1), Cultural (T2), Biological (T3) and Chemical (T4) individually and in combinations (T5 and T6) against gurdaspur borer. Results showed that borer infestation was significantly reduced (0.90, 1.16, 1.36, 2.30, 2.94 and 2.96 % in T6, T5, T1, T4, T3 and T2), respectively as compared to the highest infestation (4.78%) recorded in check (T7) plots during 2003. During 2004, significantly lower infestation 0.93, 1.04, 1.36, 2.27, 2.70 and 3.49 % was recorded in T6, T5, T1, T4, T3 and T2, respectively against the highest (5.31 %) in check (T7) plots. Among all the treatments the highest cane and sugar yield was recorded from plots that received combined application of Mechanical, Cultural and Chemical control measures (68.98 and 9.48 tons ha^-1), respectively.