Insect Pests Associated with Rice Crop (Oryza sativa) at Cachar District of Assam

Abstract

Rice (Oryza spp.) is the most important staple food for a large part of the world's population. It is cultivated in almost all the tropical, subtropical and temperate countries of the world. The major rice growing countries are India, China, Japan, Indonesia, Thailand, Burma, Philippines and Bangladesh. India is amongst the top most rice producers in the world, second only to China. Rice contributes more than 40 per cent of the country's total food grain production (Anonymous, 2018). According to the data released by the government of India, the annual production of rice in India is 115.63 million ton during 2018 – 19 (Anonymous, 2019). However farmers face huge economic losses in paddy cultivation in every year. Reduction in the rice yield is due to many biotic and abiotic stresses such as, pests, diseases, soil fertility, rainfall, water logging and climatic conditions. Among the major yield limiting factors pests are said to be an important one. Pest causes 30 % production loss in India (Sachan et al., 2006 and Dhaliwal et al., 2010). Rice crop is attacked by more than 100 species of insects and 20 of them cause economic damage (Basit and Bhattacharya, 2001). Insect pests that can cause significant International Journal of Current Microbiology and Applied Sciences ISSN: 2319-7706 Volume 9 Number 9 (2020) Journal homepage: http://www.ijcmas.com