Efficiency of Safflower Cultivars Against Black Aphid

Safflower (Carthamus tinctorius) is an important oil seed crop of Pakistan. Safflower is attacked by a number of insect pests. Among them black aphid, Uroleucon compositae is one key pest of the tender shoots of the plants and due to its drainage, the plants fade and dry up and heavy damage is caused to the crop. Considering the importance of safflower crop in our agro ecosystem, an experiment was carried out to determine the efficiency of safflower cultivars against black aphid. It was observed that the population of aphid differed significantly between observation date of PI-40/477, PI-292000 and PI-405994, while no significantly difference in population of aphid between the intervals was observed in case of cultivars PI-26993 and Thori-78. Cultivar PI-40/477 proved relatively resistant against aphid with low population of pest, while PI-405994 found to be highly susceptible with high population of pest, whereas, other cultivars were susceptible against aphid. It is suggested that resistant variety PI-40/477 may be exploited for commercial planting to minimize the losses caused by aphid.