Broomrape Control in a Cropping System Containing Bidi Tobacco

Orobanche cernua Loefl. is a serious problem in tobacco growing in India. Including a trap crop in the rotation may help to reduce the problem. Two field experiments at die Agricultural Research Station, Nipani were conducted during 1993–94 and 1994–95 to identify potential trap crops for utilization in a cropping system with bidi tobacco. Trip crops reduced the population of broomrape; especially sunhemp and greengram proved to be effective. Broomrape reduced economic yield of tobacco by 42 % in the fallow treatment but was much less detrimental in the treatments with a trap crop. There was a close negative correlation between above‐ground crop yield and the broomrape yield; broomrapes reduced the yields of their hosts much more than they invested in their own above‐pound pans. Trap crops also had a positive effect on tobacco yield by other mechanisms than above‐ground broomrape control, because yield increases were also observed on apparently non‐infested plants. There was no systematic difference between the leguminous trap crops and the non‐leguminous ones. Sunhemp and greengram are promising trap crops in a cropping system containing bidi tobacco in the areas where tobacco is grown in a long growing season during the late kharif/rabi seasons.