Question

Suggest some of the features of plants that will prevent insect and pest infestation.

Answer 1

Features of plants that will prevent insect and pest infestation:

• Presence of hairy leaves provides resistance to jassids (sap-sucking insects) in cotton and cereal leaf beetles in wheat.
• Wheat varieties with strong solid stems are not preferred by stem sawfly (insect).
• Nectar is a sweet sugary fluid secreted by special glands called nectaries present in the plant. Nectar often attracts insects towards the plant as the insects feed on it. Nectar-less varieties of cotton do not attract bollworms, a common pest that infests cotton plants.
• In maize crops certain biochemical characteristics like low nitrogen, low sugar and high aspartic acid content helps to resist against maize stem borers.