Impact of Strip Crops on the Population of Arthropod Predators and Insect-Pests in Cotton

Three strip crops, namely, maize, sorghum and cowpea were evaluated for their role in the enhancement of arthropod predators and reduction in pest populations in cotton and were compared with a control (cotton alone). Populations of arthropod predators such as spiders, coccinellids, green lacewing and rove beetles as well as insect-pests such as leafhopper, whitefly and aphid were recorded on cotton. Boll infestation due to spotted bollworm and pink bollworm was determined in opened cotton bolls at harvest. Among different strip crops, maize supported the highest number of predators (16.06 per 10 plants) as compared to control (10.73). Cotton strip cropped with sorghum (16.74) and maize (14.68) recorded the higher number of predators per 10 plants over control (10.23). Leafhopper population was significantly low in all the treatments as compared to control. Pink bollworm incidence was significantly low in cotton stripcropped with maize (17.4%) as compared to control (27.23%). However, different treatments bad no significant effect on aphid, whitefly and spotted bollworm incidence.