Management of major insect pests of Tomato

Tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill.) popularly called as "Poormans Orange" is a solanaceous vegetable fruit originated from Tropical America. Tomato is important to human diet because of its specific and high nutritive value and also due to low price. Losses due to insect pests are considered one of the important constraints responsible for low yield of many vegetable crops. In India, as many as 16 pests of different groups have been observed feeding on tomato, commencing from germination to harvesting stages which not only reduce its yield but also spoil its quality.The important insect pests identified on tomato are aphid, jassid, whitefly, leaf miner, fruit borer and leaf eating caterpillar.In the present era of organic farming, exclusive dependence on chemical pesticides is not likely to provide sustained solution to all our pest problems. Lack of effective, economic crop protection strategies is one of the key factors limiting expansion of organic agriculture. Research is therefore urgently required to develop new crop protection technologies as pest problems are limiting expansion of the industry.So keeping this in consideration, the present investigation was initiated.