Atanu Seni ^1,2* Rini Pal ^1,3 Sanjukta Mohapatra ^1,4 Dipankar Mandal ^1,3 Sushil Kumar Bansude ^1,5 Pinki Seth ^1,6 Sarita Barla ^1,7 Jubuli Sahu ^1,7

• ¹ Orissa University of Agriculture and Technology, Bhubaneswar, India
• ² Scientist (Entomology), Sambalpur,Odisha,India, India
• ³ Scientist (Plant Pathology), Sambalpur,Odisha,India, India
• ⁴ Senior Scientist (Agronomy), Sambalpur,Odisha,India, India
• ⁵ Scientist (Agril. Engineering), Sambalpur,Odisha,India, India
• ⁶ Scientist (Soil Science), Sambalpur,Odisha,India, India
• ⁷ Scientist (Agronomy), Sambalpur,Odisha,India, India

Extracts of plants have been used to manage various insect pests, but little information is available about how effective they are to reduce crop damage, or how they affect crop yield and beneficial insects in rice.Extracts from Azadirachta indica leaves, Lantana camara leaves, Nerium oleander leaves, Aegle marmelos leaves, Allium sativum cloves, Citrus limon fruits known to have insecticidal properties, were compared with two checks viz. Azadirachtin 1 EC and standard insecticide, Acephate 95 SG for their efficacy against yellow stem borer (YSB), Scirpophaga incertulas (Walk.), and rice leaf folder, Cnaphalocrocis medinalis (Guence) and natural enemies in cultivated rice in Sambalpur, Odisha, India. Untreated rice plants served as control. Adjuvant, Tween 20 @ 1% was added with all the botanical extracts except commercial formulation. Plant damage, insect population numbers and yield were monitored during two consecutive wet seasons from 2022 to 2023. Mean rice yield was significantly higher in the A. indica and Acephate 95 SG treatments i.e. 4.68 t/ha and 4.66 t/ha, respectively compared to the control (2.27 t/ha) and were significantly at par with each other. The L. camara and A. indica treatment was effective against both the major lepidopteran rice insect pests. The highest cost-benefit ratio of (1: 4.65) was obtained from Acephate treatment and was closely followed by A. indica treatment (1: 3.74).All the studied botanicals had less impact on natural enemies than synthetic chemicals. Among these botanicals, the maximum mean population of predators like spiders, carabid beetle and parasitoids like Tetrastichus schoenobii, Telenomus dignus and Trichogramma japonicum were observed in A. indica and A. marmelos treatments. Although all the studied botanicals were effective against both the major insect pests in rice, A. indica, A. marmelos, A. sativum and L. camara treatments showed the most promising against rice insect pest management so, they may be incorporated into integrated pest management of rice.