Sucking Pests of Crops

Sucking pests are most notorious group of pests for agricultural crops. Unlike most pests with chewing mouth parts, sucking pests cause more severe damage to the crops and are complex to get identified until advanced stages of infection. Not only is this late detection detrimental to their effective control, sucking pests also often cause fungal growth and virus transmission. The book emphasizes on sucking pests of most major crops of India. It aims to reflect Indian scenario before the international readership. This book complies comprehensive information on sucking pests of crops and brings the attention of the readers to this multiple damage causing insect complex. The chapters are contributed by highly experienced Indigenous experts from Universities & ICAR institutes, and book collates useful content for students and young researchers in plant pathology, entomology and agriculture.

Professor Omkar has over three decades of teaching experience and has been actively involved research for nearly four decades. He is currently a Professor and Former Head of the Department of Zoology, University of Lucknow, Lucknow-226 007, India. He is a fellow of the National Academy of Sciences, India, and several other professional bodies. He was also a recipient of the Young Indian Zoologist of 20th Century Gold Medal (2000) by the Zoological Society of India;  Prof. T. N. Ananthakrishnan Foundation Award (2012); Rescholar Award of Excellence in Agricultural Entomology by the Association of Entomologists, Patiala (2014);  Prof. G. S. Shukla Gold Medal by the Academy of Environmental Biology, India (2014) and the  Prestigious Saraswati Samman by Govt. of Uttar Pradesh (2017). His research focuses on identifying and harnessing the potential of beneficial insects, in particular ladybird beetles, for which he is globally recognized. He has completed ten research projects funded by state and central government agencies. He is author of several books and journal articles on this theme.