Executive Summary : | Depletion of fossil fuels, destruction of natural forests and industrialization are leading to a continuous increase in carbon dioxide (CO2) concentration in the atmosphere, which results in alarming increase in the global average temperature. The current ambient concentration of CO2is around 420 ppm, which is projected to increase to 685 ppm by 2050 (https://www.oecd.org/env/cc/). Earth's temperature is increasing at the rate of 0.18°C per decade. This increased CO2 concentration, temperature and related parameters have undesirable impacts in both plant metabolism as well as the insect pests which feed on them. Many studies were made to predict the effects of rising CO2 concentrations on C3 crop-pest interactions, but few studies have examined the effects on the C4 crops andtheir insect pests. Sugarcane is a C4 crop in which Crambid borers viz.,Early shoot borer (ESB), Chilo infuscatellus Snellen and Internode borer (INB), Chilo sacchariphagus indicus (Kapur)cause substantial yield loss in the current climate conditions. But their altered biology and feeding behaviour under changing climatic conditions viz., elevated CO2, temperature and relative humidity conditions have not been studied so far. The management options of these devastating pests have to be thoughtfully chosen to mitigate the future challenge expected to be posed by these pests. In this context, silicon in soluble form, is one of the eco-friendly componentsrecently being reported to hinder the feeding by chewing pests.Hence, it is proposed to study the biology and feeding behaviour of these important borer pests of sugarcane under elevatedlevels of atmospheric parametersand to evaluate the impactof silica in mitigating these pests. The information obtained from this study will help to understand the future impact of these pests on sugarcane cultivation under changing global climate scenario and to mitigate this climate-induced biotic stress effectively so that the future yield loss could be minimized. |