Management of rice root knot nematodes (Meloidogyne graminicola) in aerobic rice by using botanicals under climatic variability and uncertainty

A field study was conducted to screen out the efficacy of different botanicals against Meloidogyne graminicola infected aerobic rice field. The extracts of neem seed kernels, leaf extracts of Parthenium argentatum, Lantana camara, Jatropha curcus, Moringa sp. @ 3 % v/v were applied as treatments along with one chemical treatment by Carbofuran @ 1 kg a.i. /ha were applied to seven treatments including control. These treatments were given in the plots of anaerobic rice field at KVK Vaishali, Bihar during 2011 and 2012 and compared with control. The results showed that the vegetative growth of plants like shoot length and weight, root length and weight and grain yield was significantly higher than the control. Also reduction in the number of galls, the number of females and number of juveniles were decreased significantly in botanicals treated plants compared to control. Although carbofuran treated plants showed the best results regarding the vegetative and reproductive growth of plants as well as reduction of root-knot nematodes, a treatment where Parthenium argentatum was given to the plants, performed better than the other botanicals. Since it is a toxic weed which spreads very fast and causes many deleterious effects on crops, human and animal health as well as on environment as a whole, its use as a biocontrol of M. graminicola in aerobic rice may be a great eco-friendly approach for the saving of environment