author(s)
Tara Yadav, Acharya VS, Ramawtar Yadav and Sanp RK

abstract
An experiment was conducted at the Department of Entomology, college of agriculture, SKRAU, Rajasthan, Bikaner during Rabi to find out the insect pest attacking cumin crop sowing at different dates to determine the optimum dates of sowing. It is seen that the incidence and population fluctuation of various insect pests was very much dependent on the prevailed climatic conditions of the cropping season. The late sown (5^th December) crops received higher pest infestation and followed by crop sown (25 November). The early sown (25 October) received lowest pest infestation. The highest yield (2.30 q ha^-1) was obtained from November 5 sowing crop. The second highest yield (2.05 q ha^-1) was obtained from October 25 sowing which was statistically identical to November 15, November 25 and December 5 sowings crop. Again, the delayed sowings after mid November to onward provide yield of 1.80 q ha^-1 to 1.40 q ha^-1 which were very poor. Hence, for ensuring higher yield and less insect pest infestation, cumin should be sown within the period of October 25 to December 5 and the best date of sowing should be November 5.