Silicon Quantification in Sugarcane Plants Mediated Defence Against Early Shoot Borer, Chilo infuscatellus and its Effect on Larval Mandibles, Yield and Quality Attributing Parameters

Silicon is recognized for providing resistance against various biotic and abiotic stresses and members of poaceae family like sugarcane known to uptake more silicon than any other mineral nutrients. This persuade to conduct this research which was conducted during spring season in march 2021–2022 at Punjab Agricultural University, Regional Research Station Kapurthala. This research was conducted to examine the efficacy of different silicon treatments in managing the incidence of early shoot borers (ESB) and its effect on mandibles of larvae along with influence on yield and quality-attributing parameters. There were ten treatments: four doses T 1 , T 2 , T 3 and T 4 of silicon material 50% @ 8, 10, 12 and 15 kg/acre, two doses of rice husk ash, T 5 and T 6 and bagasse ash T 7 and T 8 @ 200 and 400 kg/acre, insecticide treatment of Takumi 20 WG (flubendiamide) T 9 and untreated control T 10 . The results revealed that treatment T 4 enhanced the available soil silicon, stalk silicon content and silicon deposition as phytoliths in epidermal tissue (SEM images) resulted in an incidence reduction of ESB to 38.75–40.86% over control with larvae experienced mandibular abrasion feeding on silicon rich tissue. The cultivar CoPb 95 showed highest stalk silicon (2.68%) content followed by Co 118 (2.61%) and CoPb 96 (2.53%) with lowest incidence of ESB, 5.99%, 6.31% and 6.94%, respectively. Maximum yield was also recorded with treatment T 4 in cultivar CoPb 95 (371.96 q/acre) followed by CoPb 96 (361.26 q/acre) and Co 118 (311.24 q/acre) while commercial cane sugar (CCS%) was highest in treatment T 4 of cultivar Co 118 (13.25%) followed by CoPb 95 (13.16%) and CoPb 96 (12.23%). Results of cost–benefit ratio suggested that silicon material 50% @ 12 kg/acre was efficient to reduce incidence of ESB. Hence, silicon could be used as a vital component in integrated pest management.