author(s)
Sunil Kumar Ghosh

abstract
Tomato crop (Solanum lycopersicum L.) is cultivated at a commercial scale in West Bengal, India but insect pest attack constitute limiting factors for its successful cultivation. Tomato plant is highly susceptible to whitefly (Bemisia tabaci Genn.). Damage caused by whitefly may be directly through phloem feeding, or indirectly by transmission of viruses such as Tomato Yellow Leaf Curl Virus. The incidence of whitefly population always remained higher on upper canopy of the plant followed by middle canopy and lower canopy which is important for preparation of spray schedule. Imidacloprid resulted the best suppression of whitefly population (81.48% suppression) followed by avermectin (73.33%) and mixed formulation of azadirachtin with Spilenthes (71.65%) extracts. Microbial toxin and botanicals are bio-pesticides. They have lower hazardous effects on human health and environment. Therefore, they can be used in organic farming and Integrated Pest Management (IPM) for tomato cultivation as well as vegetable cultivation. These treatments may be recommended for general use by the farmers.