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Not AvailableNot AvIn India, crops are affected by several pests including insects, diseases, weeds, rats, nematodes etc. causing 30% loss of the Indian crop yield potential amounting to more than 30 million tonnes of food grain valued at Rs.50,000 million, representing 18 % of the gross national agricultural production. Of this, 23 % loss is due to insect pests. Pest management was primarily dependant on chemical pesticides. Keeping in view the ill effects of chemical pesticides, the Govt. of India has adopted Integrated Pest Management (IPM) as the cardinal principle and main plank of plant protection strategy in the country. IPM is an eco-friendly approach aimed at minimum use of chemical pesticides by employing available alternative methods of pest control like cultural, mechanical and biological and use of bio-pesticides to maintain pest species at economically acceptable densities. Insect pathogens can have a major role in pest management but their effective integration into such systems depends on their compatibility with other components of this system such as chemical pesticides, other pathogens, parasitic and predaceous arthropods.ailableicar-iio