Efficacy of neem based pesticides used for sucker treatment against root-knot nematode infesting banana cv. robusta.

Banana (Musa spp.) is one of the important commercial fruit crops grown widely in both tropical and sub tropical conditions under different production systems. India has emerged as the largest producer of banana in the world with total production of 16.8 million tonnes per annum from 4.29 lakh hectare having share of32 per cent of the total fruit production. The major banana growing states are Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Karnataka, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Bihar, West Bengal and Assam.Banana (Musa spp.) is one of the important commercial fruit crops. Robusta, a common and widely distributed cultivar grown throughout the country is seriously affected by plant parasitic nematodes. Among them, the root-knot nematode, Meloidogyne incognita, a sedentary endoparasite infests the banana roots and rhizomes heavily and easily transmitted through suckers. The present investigation was undertaken to find out the effect of neem based formulations (neewin, nimbecidine, juerken and neemgold) and hot water treatment on root-knot nematode, M. incognita on banana in cultivar Robusta. Among the treatments, nimbecidine or juerken @ 15ml/litre of water for 30 minutes dip or hot water treatment @ 50°C for 20 minutes dip were proved to be most effective treatments resulting in enhanced plant growth with significant reduction in nematode populations and were on par with each other