ARS | Publication request: Host Plant Resistance and Insect Pest Management in Chickpea

Submitted to: Chickpea Breeding and Management
Publication Type: Book/Chapter
Publication Acceptance Date: November 3, 2006
Publication Date: February 1, 2007
Citation: Sharma, H.C., Gowda, C.L., Stevenson, P.C., Ridsdill-Smith, T.J., Clement, S.L., Ranga Rao, G.V., Romies, J., Miles, M., Bouhssini, M. 2007. Host Plant Resistance and Insect Pest Management in Chickpea. Chickpea Breeding and Management. In: Yadav S.S., R.J. Redden, W. Chen, B. Sharma, editors. Chickpea Breeding and Management. CAB International, Wallingford, U.K., pp. 520-537.

Interpretive Summary: This chapter for a CAB-International book on Chickpea Breeding and Management was written by global leaders in chickpea entomology, with the Research Entomologist at the USDA-ARS Plant Introduction Station, Pullman, Washington, a coauthor of the chapter and responsible for contributing the information about chickpea pest management in the United States. Although chickpea production on the Indian subcontinent and Australia is severely threatened by increasing difficulties in managing several insect pests, chickpeas in the major U.S. production areas (Pacific Northwest, Northern Great Plains) are only occasionally impacted by insect pests. These pests include the western striped armyworm, pea leaf weevil, pea aphid, and cowpea aphid in Washington and Idaho, and cutworms, loopers, corn earworm, wireworms, aphids, grasshoppers, and leafmining flies in the Northern Great Plains. However, insect pest problems are likely to increase in the Northern Great Plains where chickpea acreage is increasing. In the U.S., chickpea farmers use synthetic insecticides to control insect pests. Other pest management approaches (crop cultural manipulation practices, insect pathogenic viruses, entomopathogenic fungi, biological control with insect parasites and predators, and plant resistance) are a priority on the Indian subcontinent where major insect pests have developed resistance to insecticides. This chapter represents the most comprehensive summary of current and future pest management methods for chickpea pests, and thus provides an important blueprint for future research in the U.S.

Technical Abstract: Nearly 60 insect species feed on chickpea worldwide, of which cutworms (black cutworm - Agrotis ipsilon and turnip moth - Agrotis segetum), leaf feeding caterpillars (leaf caterpillar - Spodoptera exigua and hairy caterpillar - Spilarctia oblique), leaf miners (Liriomyza cicerina), aphids (Aphis craccivora), pod borers (cotton bollworm - Helicoverpa armigera and native budworm - Helicoverpa punctigera), and the bruchids (Callosobruchus spp.) are the major pests. The pod borer, H. armigera and aphids, A. craccivora (as a vector of chickpea stunt virus) are the major pests in the Indian Subcontinent, while the leaf miner, L. cicerina is an important pest in the Mediterranean region. Bruchids, Callosobruchus spp., cause extensive losses in storage all over the world. In general, insects are minor pests of chickpea in North America. Low to moderate levels of resistance to the major worldwide pests have been identified in conserved germplasm, with a few improved varieties with pod borer-resistance and high grain yield developed. Germplasm accessions of the wild relatives of chickpea (Cicer bijugum, C. judaicum, and C. reticulatum) can be used to increase resistance levels and diversify resistance mechanisms to H. armigera. Efforts are underway to utilize molecular techniques to increase resistance levels to pod borer. Synthetic insecticides, agronomic practices, nuclear polyhedrosis virus (NPV), entomopathogenic fungi, bacteria, and natural plant products have been evaluated as components of pest management in chickpea.