The experiment was conducted in the field of Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University farm, Sher-e-Bangla Nagar, Dhaka, Bangladesh during the period from December, 2010 to April, 2011.
Description of gram
Seeds of gram variety BARI chola 2 were used as a test crop
Description of other border crops
In this experiment onion (Allium cepa), garlic (Allium sativum), coriander (Coriandrumsativum), radhuni (Coriandrumspp.), mustard (Brassica campestris), Methi( Trigonellafoenumgraecum) and wheat (Triticumaestivum) were sown as border crop with gram.
Seed processing and treatment
The seeds of BARI chola 2 were collected from BARI, Gazipur, Dhaka. The seeds of onion, garlic, coriander, radhuni, mustard, methi and wheat were collected from local market.
Sowing of seeds
The seeds of main and border crop were sown on 07 December 2010 in rows with spacing of 30 cm × 30 cm for all border crop but in sole crops it was sown at a spacing of 40 cm × 30 cm.
Treatments
There were 8 treatments among them 01 was used as sole crop and others with border crop. The details of the treatments are presented below:
T1: Gram sole (control)
T2: Gram + Onion
T3: Gram + Garlic
T4: Gram + Coriander
T5: Gram + Radhuni
T6: Gram + Mustard
T7: Gram + Methi
T8: Gram + Wheat
Experimental design and layout
The experiment was laid out in Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) with three replications.
Monitoring and data collection
Five plants were selected randomly from each plot and insect pests infested plant by aphid (plate4), whitefly, butterfly, grasshopper (plate7), cutworm (plate5) and predators like lady bird beetle (plate12), ant (plate13), spider (plate11), syrphid fly (plate9) and rove beetle (plate10) were observed regularly and recorded. After last observation, the population of aphid, whitefly and grasshopper was converted number per plant and that was butterfly and cutworms were converted per plot.
Statistical analysis
The mean values of all the characters were evaluated and analysis of variance was done by the ‘F’ (variance ratio) test. The mean differences were evaluated by Duncan’s Multiple Range Test (DMRT) at 5% level of probability (Gomez and Gomez, 1984).