Question

A farmer chooses to plant wheat varieties with solid and strong stems. Which pest is the farmer trying to avoid?

Answer 1

Many pests attack agricultural crops and destroy them, leading to huge crop losses. Some crop plants naturally develop resistance to pests as a result of morphological, physiological or biochemical characteristics in them.

The stem sawfly is an insect which damages the wheat crop. Wheat varieties with strong solid stem is not preferred by stem sawfly as it becomes difficult for the insect to insert the eggs.

Fig: Larvae of sawfly in wheat stem

Presence of hairy leaves in cotton plants provides resistance against insects like jassids. The hair prevents the jassids from penetrating into the epidermis of the leaves. Thus, they are unable to suck the plant sap and the plant is protected.

Smooth leaved and nectar less cotton varieties do not attract bollworms.

Hence, option b is correct.