A Survey Study to Assess the Prevalence of Storage Insect Pest on the Seed Health Status of Farmers in Telangana, India

Introduction: Telangana is considered as seed bowl of India. About 65% of rice produced will be used either for consumption or seed purpose. Hence, farmers save their produce till next season. But in storage it is infested with many insect pests. Due to lack of awareness about scientific storage techniques they are unable to produce quality seed.

Materials and Methods: Eighty-five rice seed samples were collected from seven major rice producing areas of the Telangana. Seed samples were drawn from top, middle and bottom positions of the container with a sampler, from the storage structures. A total of fourteen seed stores were sampled and composite samples were collected from these stores for further assessment in a laboratory. From each container, three samples, each consisting of 500 g of rice seed was taken. Samples were bulked and 500 g sample prepared as sample. Each sample was put in a paper bag and labeled with the necessary information (name of the site, sample number, date of sampling, storage time.

Results: Sixty three percent samples were infested with lesser grain borer; Rhyzopertha dominica; Angoumois grain moth; Sitotroga cereallela, rice weevil, Sitophilus oryzae; rust red flour beetle, Tribolium cataneum; Saw toothed beetle Oryzaephillus surinamensis. Among these insect pests, Angoumois grain moth and lesser grain borer were predominant. The maximum seed moisture content (12.57%) was recorded in the samples of Miryalaguda district and minimum seed moisture content (9.39%) in samples of Warangal district. The maximum insect infestation 5.73% was recorded in samples of district Rangareddy and the minimum (0.23%) sample were infested in Mahaboobnagar district. The maximum germination (95%) was noticed in seed sample of Nizamabad district and the minimum (79.57%) in samples of Warangal district. However, the maximum 1745 and minimum 1400 seed vigour index were observed in Nizamabad and Mahaboobnagar districts, respectively. The overall average performance of seed samples collected different villages of seven districts of Telangana were seed moisture content (10.88%) seed damaged (2.16 %), seed germination (90.43%) and Seed Vigour Index (1539).