Shelf Life of biopesticide formulation & their effect on chickpea pest

The shelf life of biopesticide is judged by the number of viable spores/mycelia present in the formulation. Thus, quality of biopesticide in the market is determined by the number of cfu/g (colony forming units/g). The present study entitled, “Shelf life studies of some biopesticide formulation and their efficacy against major fungal pathogen and insect pest of chickpea” is an attempt to determine the shelf life of these biopesticides at different formulations and their efficacy against pest of chickpea. Two species of Trichoderma spp. were tried against wilt causing pathogen (Fusarium oxysporum), and Beauvaria bassiana was studied against gram pod borer (Helicoverpa armigera) which is a major insect-pest of chickpea. A uniform trend in this respect has been found throughout during the course of the study for two consecutive years. The attempt to collect and interpret data of consecutive years under similar edaphic and climatic conditions, under laboratory and field conditions have been done in the present studies, shows that data need to be collected over a period of several years under definite edaphic and climatic conditions for more meaningful interpretation and generalization.