OILSEED CROPS

A wide variety of seeds are grown as a source of oils, e.g. cottonseed, sesame, groundnut, sunflower, soya, and nuts such as coconut, groundnut, and palm nut. After extraction of the oil the residue is a valuable source of protein, especially for animal feeding stuffs, as in oil-seed cake or press cake.

Oilseed Crops are grown primarily for the oil contained in the seeds. The oil content of small grains (e.g., wheat) is only 1-2%; that of oilseeds ranges from about 20% for SOYBEANS to over 40% for SUNFLOWERS and rapeseed (CANOLA). The major world sources of edible seed oils are soybeans, sunflowers, rapeseed, cotton and peanuts. Seed oils from FLAX (linseed) and castor beans are used for industrial purposes. Edible fats and oils are similar in molecular structure; however, fats are solid at room temperature, while oils are liquid.

While there are many uses for industrial vegetable oils, total world production is only about 3% of that of edible oils. Industrial applications are based on the properties of particular fatty-acid components of these oils. For example, flax seed oil, rich in the unsaturated fatty acid linolenic, is a drying oil and is used in protective coatings (e.g., paints, varnishes). Vegetable oils are used in putty, printing inks, erasers, coating or core oils, greases, plastics, etc. The residue remaining after the oil has been extracted from oilseeds is an important source of nutrients for farm animals. Oilseed meals from soybeans, peanuts, rapeseed and flax seed are rich in protein; mixed with other ingredients (e.g., cereal grains), they provide nutritionally balanced feeds.

A large variety of pests damage oilseeds and cause significant losses in the farms or storages. Among which insect pests are a significant factor in the economics of oilseed production. There are also several vertebrate pests such as rats, slugs and birds.

Pests of oilseeds can be classified according to the different factors such as taxonomic grouping, feeding habitat, distribution. Within each groups, the pest status may vary with country, year and season depending on species, variety, cropping system used. Some of the pests may attack a certain type of oilseed; the others are generalists and can feed on a variety of crops. Pests with different feeding habitat could have either chewing or sucking mouth parts. Pests with chewing mouth parts eat parts of the crops such as flowers, foliage stems, roots or buds. They may only eat portions of leaves, leave holes in the leaves (flea beetles), cause bud abscission, reducing yield of the pods and leaf area, earlier leaf abscission, delayed flowering (weevils) or bore into stems and roots (borers).

Although the importance of crops differ from region to region but some most prominent crops are cottonseeds, groundnuts, mustard, rapeseed, safflower, sesame, soybean, sunflower, linseed and castor. Protection of the crops from pest’s infestations and keeping the pests under proper control has become in consideration due to the importance of the crops.