ESSENTIAL OILS AGAINST STORED GRAIN INSECT PESTS

Worldwide losses in stored products, due to insects, have been estimated to be between 5 - 10 percent. While, In the tropics it may reach up to 30%. In India, annual storage losses have been estimated about 14 million tones worth of Rs. 7,000 crore in which insects alone account for nearly Rs. 1,300 crores. The increasing pressure of expanding human population has also created a critical problem of food scarcity. Controlling insect infestation in grain storage must be a primary point of interest during and after harvesting. In such a situation, to manage stored grain and other agricultural products in developing and other Asian countries from insect infestation, various synthetic insecticides have been used. Fumigation is most important tool of insect pest elimination in stored products. Fumigants are pesticides that act on the target pests in the vapour or gaseous phase. The substances used as fumigant shouldn’t leave any hazardous residues and should not alter the nutritional quality, flavour, or other characteristics of the grains. The control of these stored grain pests by synthetic insecticides has serious drawbacks.