“Plant essential oils as a management for storage insect pests”

Jai Hind Sharma

Department of Entomology, College of Agriculture, G.B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology,
Pantnagar-263145, Uttarakhand, India
Email- hind0303@gmail.com

Stored grains are ravaged by

a number of insect
pests. The stored grain pests
infest grains to fulll their
food and shelter
requirements resulting in
qualitative
as well as quantitative
losses. The tropical climate
of
India is highly favourable for
continuous occurrence of
storage insect pests
throughout the year. A
number of
insect pests gain access to
the grain storage at various
stages of processing of food
grains/ seeds viz., during
the process of development
and maturation of seeds/
grains, processing in
threshing yards, during
transit or
while in storage. Some insect
pests initiate damage at
the ripening stage of crops
and continue during storage.
Major sources of infestations
are old bags, storage
structure, old containers,
and cross over infestation
(Pruthi and Singh, 1950).
The spread and distribution
of stored product pests
are facilitated by movement
of grains from one area to
another either passively or by
active ight of insect pests
as some of the adult insects
are strong iers. Nearly one
thousand species of insects
have been associated with
stored products in different
part of the world. These
may destroy the grains and
contaminate the rest with
undesirable odours and
avours. Majority of insec
Stored grains are ravaged by
a number of insect
pests. The stored grain pests
infest grains to fulll their
food and shelter
requirements resulting in
qualitative
as well as quantitative
losses. The tropical climate
of
India is highly favourable for
continuous occurrence of
storage insect pests
throughout the year. A
number of
insect pests gain access to
the grain storage at various
stages of processing of food
grains/ seeds viz., during
the process of development
and maturation of seeds/
grains, processing in
threshing yards, during
transit or
while in storage. Some insect
pests initiate damage at
the ripening stage of crops
and continue during storage.
Major sources of infestations
are old bags, storage
structure, old containers,
and cross over infestation
(Pruthi and Singh, 1950).
The spread and distribution
of stored product pests
are facilitated by movement
of grains from one area to
another either passively or by
active ight of insect pests
as some of the adult insects
are strong iers. Nearly one
thousand species of insects
have been associated with
stored products in different
part of the world. These
may destroy the grains and
contaminate the rest with
undesirable odours and
avours. Majority of insec
Stored grains are ravaged by a number of insect pests. The stored grain pests infest grains to
fulfill their food and shelter requirements resulting in qualitative as well as quantitative losses.
Stored-product insects can cause postharvest losses, estimated from up to 9% in developed
countries to 20% or more in developing countries. The tropical and sub-tropical climate of India
is highly favorable for continuous occurrence of storage insect pests throughout the year. In
India, annual storage losses estimated to be 14 million ton of food grains worth $ 16,000 million
every year. Farmer store their produce for year one or two but are powerless to do so, without the
pesticide use and due to injudicious use of insecticides, resistance in storage pests have
increased. Occurrence of chemicals in human diet is an additional problem. Storage at farmer
level can be secured for at least one year or more through the use of plant essential oils, many
essential oils are proven to protect stored grains due to their fumigant property, only the current
demand is to formulate or find a delivery method so that these essentials oils can be exploited by
farmer at small level, which will also reduce our dependency on deadly chemicals used
injudiciously for the control of storage pests. For that we have to consider three things hermetic
storage (air tight containers) with the help of HDPE (High Density Polyethylene) etc., eliminate
O2 form air tight container (by burning something) and last but not the least use of plant essential
oils in appropriate concentration instead of chemicals.