| Management |
Activity |
Pre-sowing*
|
|
Common cultural practices:
• Deep ploughing and soil solarisation to expose pupae and propagules of soil borne pathogens.
• Timely sowing should be done.
• Field sanitation, rogueing
• Destroy the alternate host plants
• Soil test based application of manures and fertilizers.
• Adoption of crop rotation.
• Sowing of healthy, disease free and certified seeds
• Uproot and burn infected plants early enough to avoid spread of the disease.
• Avoid high plant populations
• Adopt ecological engineering by growing the attractant, repellent, and trap crops around the field bunds. |
| Nutrients |
• Use well decomposed FYM @4t/acre or vermicompost @ 2.0 t/acre treated with Trichoderma at the time of last ploughing or at the time of growing.
• Apply vermicompost at1 week before sowing and FYM at 3-4 weeks before sowing.
• Do not leave FYM or compost exposed to sunlight as nutrients may lose. |
| Weeds |
• At the time of field preparation, adopt stale seed bed technique.
• In Striga affected fields, do not grow pearlmillet or sorghum continuously and follow crop rotation with legumes. |
| Downy mildew, Smut** and Nematodes |
Cultural control:
• Use tolerant/resistant varieties e.g. MH 1192,ICMH 451,Pusa 23, MBH 110, PHB 57, WC-C 75, ICTP 8203 and GHB 67
• Eliminate any potentially damaging insect problems
. • Plant in a row of 15 inches to 24 inches. Seed may be placed about 6 inches apart within the row.
• The seed should be planted shallow, about half inch deep at the rate of 2 Kg/acre.
• Maintain good fertility levels, apply adequate organic manures
Biological control:
• Application of neem cake @ 80 Kg/acre for nematode control.
Chemical control:
• Spray with fungicidesmetalaxyl8%+ Mancozeb64%WP@800g in 200 l of water/acre for downy mildew.
• Seed dressing with fungicides metalaxyl-M 31.8% ES@ 2.0 ml/Kg seed for downy mildew |
| Ergot** |
Cultural control:
• Dipping the seeds in 10% NaCl salt solution for 10 minute to control the ergot disease.
• The crop should be sown as early as possible during June- July with the onset of monsoon.
• Use of resistant cultivars is the most cost-effective method for the control of Ergot disease.
• Eradicate the weeds like Cenchrus ciliaris and Panicum antidotale from around pearl millet fields. |
Sowing*
|
|
Common cultural practices:
• Use healthy, certified and weed free seeds.
• Timely sowing should be done.
• Line sowing should be done to facilitate inter-culture operations. • Early sowing to avoid the active period of shoot fly population
• Removal of diseased crop residues
• Crop rotation |
| Nutrient |
• Seed treatment should be done with Azotobactor/Azospirillum and PSB @ 200 g /acre and VAM inoculum @ 1Kg /acre.
• If soil test recommendation is not available follow the blanket recommendation of NPK @ 28:14:14 Kg/ acre for varieties. For hybrids, apply 32 Kg N, 16 Kg P2O5 and 16 Kg K2O per acre.
• Apply the recommended N in three splits as 25:50:25 per cent at sowing, 15 and 30 days after sowing and full dose of phosphorus and potassium at sowing.
• Under rainfed conditions with low rainfall, the dose of fertilizers should be reduced to 50 percent and applied at the time of sowing. |
| Weed |
• Plant population should be maintained to its optimum right from beginning to minimize the crop weed competition.
• Inter cropping with short duration pulse crops like moong bean should be done to suppress weeds between rows.
• Inter cropping with pigeon pea in 2:1 ratio is also recommended for weed suppressing. |
| Shoot fly** |
Cultural control:
• Set up the low cost fish meal traps @ 4/acre till the crop is 30 days old.
Mechanical control:
• Removal of the seedlings with dead hearts and keep the optimum plant stand in the field.
• Plough after harvest to remove and destroy the stubbles.
Biological control:
• See common biological practices.
Chemical control:
• Seed treatment with imidacloprid 48% FS 12ml/Kg seed or imidacloprid 70% WS 10 g/Kg seed. |
| Downy mildew |
Cultural control:
• Roguing and gap filling, deep ploughing and soil solarisation.
• Avoidance of monoculture.
• Avoidance of low lying fields and water logging.
Biological control:
• The crude extract of Vincarosea, Ocimum sanctum, Allium sativum, Datura stramonium, Azadirachta indica and Thuja sinensis can reduce the disease incidence.
Chemical control:
• The systemic fungicide metalaxyl-M 31.8% ES was used for seed treatment 2.0 ml/Kg seed successfully to control downy mildew in pearl millet.
• Spray metalaxyl 8%+ mancozeb 64% WP@ 800g/acre in 200 l of water |
| Note: Apply Trichoderma viride/harizanium and Pseudomonas fluorescens as seeds/seedlings/planting material treatment and soil application (if commercial products are used, check for label claim. However, biopesticides produced by farmers for own consumption in their fields, registration is not required). |
Vegetative Stage*
|
|
Common cultural practices:
• Select and grow varieties resistant to stem borer.
• Sow the lab lab or cowpea as an intercrop (Pearl Millet: Lab lab 4:1).
Common mechanical practices:
• Remove and destroy the disease affected plants
• Dead hearts should be pulled out and used as fodder or buried in manure pits.
• Stubbles should be ploughed up during winter and burnt to destroy the hibernating larvae |
| Nutrients |
• Apply remaining 50% dose of N at 15 days after sowing and 25 % N at 30 days after sowing as top dressing with irrigation or immediately after rainfall. |
| Weeds |
• Inter cultivation: Two weeding with one shallow hoeing up to 4-5 weeks after sowing will keep the field free from weeds.
• First weeding/ hoeing should be done within three weeks of sowing.
• Mulches like straw hay, crop residues etc. can be used in between the rows to suppress the weed growth. |
| Downy mildew |
• As mentioned above in the sowing stage. |
| Cutworm |
Biological control:
• See common practices. |
| Stem borer** |
Cultural control:
• See the common cultural practices
Mechanical control:
• Follow common practices.
Biological control:
• Follow common biological practices. |
Flowering heading*
|
| Grain Midge** |
Cultural control:
• Removal of Johnson grassy weed. |
| Hairy caterpillar** |
Cultural control:
• Irrigate once to avoid prolonged mid season drought to prevent pre-harvest infestation.
Mechanical control:
• Dig the trenches of 1 inch depth between the fields & dust the trenches to kill the larvae in pits.
Biological control:
• Spray Bacillus thuringiensis @ 400 g/acre. |
| Ear head bug** |
Cultural control:
• See the common cultural practices.
Biological control:
• Spray NSKE 5%
• Azadirachtin 1%
• For others see common practices. |
| Rust** |
Cultural control:
• See the common cultural and mechanical practices
Biological control:
• Some fungal species controls rust disease such as Aspergillusglobosum, Chaetomium globosum and Trichoderma koningii. |
| Smut** |
Cultural control:
• Avoid rationing.
• Intercropping of mungbean with pearl millet reduces the smut disease. |
| Birds |
Mechanical control:
• Use bird scarer
Biological control:
• Apply NSKE 5% on panicle to save the damage from birds |
Note: The pesticide dosages and spray fluid volumes are based on high volume spray.
** Pests of regional significance |
