Abstract

Tobacco is a high value industrial crop, playing an important role in India’s agricultural economy. Tobacco is cultivated in fifteen states of India producing 760 M kg of cured leaf from an area of 0.42 M ha contributing significantly to the national economy in the form of excise revenue and foreign exchange earnings. The insect pests are the most important biotic constraints in sustaining tobacco productivity particularly in sub-tropical agricultural ecosystem where due to a more conducive environment for pest build–up, resultant losses incurred are substantially very high in terms of both quantity and quality. About two dozen pests attack this crop in the nursery, planted crop and in storage, of which five insect pests cause enormous loss in terms of quantity and quality. Pest based and crop based integrated pest management practices have been developed for various insect pests resulting in substantial reduction of losses due to insect pests and helped in increasing the productivity of tobacco over the past three decades. However, of late there is growing disquiet about the sustainability of tobacco production due to various reasons. One of the limitations identified is increasing incidence of insect pests and diseases which is a cause of concern. The insect pests have shown a shift in the recent past with increased incidence and also some of the minor pests have become major problems. This can be attributed to changes in climate, cropping pattern, eco-system changes and production practices. In addition to these, pesticide residues in tobacco have become a potential challenge. Tobacco being an export commodity, the customers prefers tobaccos with acceptable levels of pesticide residues. In the light of these, the insect pest problems, present status of IPM practices developed for their management, future strategies and the way forward have been discussed.