Bengal Gram is one of the major income source for Rayalasema region of Andhra Pradesh. Farmers were prefering this crop because of  low rain fall , less input intensive,ease of operations. The regular pest is heliothis  and very rarely Spodoptera.

The most preferred chemicals  are  Acephate+quinalphos/Choloro that to at sublethal doses. This was the practice since from last 20 years and farmers were rejected new chemistries such as indoxacarb,Novaluron , Thiodicarb Pesticide majors has been tried very hard to change the farmer current practice but they miserably failed. But during Rabi 2008 farmers were shifted to new molecules because of sevre infestation of caterpillars ( Heliothis & Spodoptera) . Farmers has been tested new products such as Takumi ( Rallis) , Emamactin Benzoate (Syngenta, Dhanuka,Upl...) and flubendiamate Sc ( Bayer). The other reason for shift from old molecules to new molecules is price hike in generics particularly acephate . Farmers were satisfied with Takumi results than any pesticide because of 1. Efficient control of caterpillars 2. Longer duration 3. Safety to crop and humans.

Sizeable portion of farmers are ready to use new chemistries even acephate will available at Rs.300 per kg to farmer