MAGNITUDE OF RODENT DEPREDATION IN SOYBEANS

Rodent depredation assessment for soybean crop was made in the vegetat ive, pod formation and pod maturation stages by following the diagonal , quadrat and row methods. The soybean crop fields had three inhabited rodent pests viz., Bandicota bengalensis, Millardia meltada and Mus b ooduga. Among these, B. bengalensis was found to be the predominant an d they were of 5, 3, 12 and 20.5 live burrows/ha at the vegetative, po d formation and pod maturation stages of the crop respectively. No dam age was observed in vegetative phase of crop while pod formation and p od maturation stages received significant damage. The results indicate that the rodent control campaign must be made shortly after vegetativ e phase of the crop (<50 days old) so as to minimise the rodents menac e.