Abstract

Pest management is a severe constraint in agriculture as pests decrease the plant yield, productivity and also act as vectors causing various plant diseases. Pesticides are used to devour pests; however, irrational usage results in adverse impacts on the ecosystem. The present investigation was aimed to study the effects of fenvalerate, cypermethrin and chlorpyriphos on the growth of Coriandrum sativum for 35 days until the plants attained the flowering stage. The study was conducted in triplicates and various growth parameters such as germination rate, shoot height, biomass and moisture content of pesticide-induced plants were calculated and compared with control. On the 35^th day, the plants displayed enhanced shoot heights under recommended pesticide dosage of 2.5 mL L^-1 for cypermethrin (11.41 ± 0.08 cm) and fenvalerate (12.43 ± 0.2 cm) rather than the control plants (9.12 ± 0.06 cm). However, detrimental effects on plant growth and early mortality were observed in chlorpyriphos treated plantlets. Student's t-test revealed a marked difference in plant growth under different pesticide concentration gradients at a 5% level of significance. Analysis of shoot heights and analysis of variance (ANOVA) concluded that there was no significant mean difference of plants grown under cypermethrin and fenvalerate stress at 5.0 and 7.5 mL L^-1 concentration with plants in control. Hence, the present study establishes an optimal pesticide range of 5.0 ± 2.5 mL L^-1, which did not prove injurious to the growth and productivity of C. sativum.

Key words: Chloropyriphos, Coriandrum sativum, cypermethrin, fenvalerate, germination.

Abbreviation

Abbreviations: ANOVA, Analysis of variance; CNS, central nervous system; E.C., emulsifiable concentrate; EC, electrical conductivity; KVK, Krishi Vigyan Kendra; SPSS, Statistical Package for the Social Sciences; TA, Tatafen; TR, Tricel; US, Ustaad.