Development of Strategies of Rice Striped Stem Borer (Chilo suppressalis Walk) Management in Farmers, Field in Mazandaran province

Rice is the world's most important food crop. To decrease the damage of rice pests, development of insect pest management strategies in rice is necessary. Biennial results for determination of a suitable method to control striped stem borer in rice showed that integration of two methods of control (biological and mechanical) is a feasible effort to reduce stem borer infestation. To assure this result, The current study was carried out at the farmer's field on Hashemi Tarom variety in east (Neka city), center (Babol city) and west (Noor city) of Mazandaran province with the purpose of determining the efficiency of the two control methods especially, mechanical control, because of its economic and environmental properties. The experiment was carried out in randomized complete design with 4 treatments (Mechanical control, Mechanical-biological control, Mechanical- Biological-chemical control and usual method of farmer, namely two times application in first and second generation) and 3 replications. Whiteheads and yield were measured before harvesting. Data were compared by one-way Analysis Of Variance (ANOVA) followed by Duncan test. The parameters were analyzed by using the SAS software. Results showed that there were significant differences among different control methods. The highest mean of whitehead rate (14.2%) and the lowest mean yield (3.854 t/h) occurred in the conventional method (P<0.05). There were no significant differences among other control methods. The results of this study showed the efficiency of the mechanical method.