ESTIMATION OF YIELD LOSS DUE TO STEM FLY, MELANAGROMYZA SOJAE (ZEHNTNER) IN SOYBEAN

of Agricultural Sciences, Dharwad, Karnataka, India during Kharif (June to September) 2022 to assess the yield loss in soybean due to stem fly, Melanagromyza sojae.The trial was planned in two factorial designs having protected and unprotected plots with a spacing of 3010 cm 2 in a plot size of 53 m 2 .Two well-known popular soybean varieties, namely DSb 21 and DSb 34 were sown.One group of these varieties was subjected to protective measures, while the other group remained untreated without any spray applications.The findings revealed that higher percentage of stem fly infestation and stem tunneling was recorded in the unprotected plots compared to the protected ones.Among the varieties, DSb 34 displayed tolerance to stem fly with lower infestation and tunneling compared to DSb 21 under both protected and unprotected conditions.DSb 34 is having narrow leaves and short growth duration made it less preferred by stem flies.And also, the study showed that protected plots had a significantly higher grain yield compared to unprotected plots.DSb 21 suffered more avoidable yield loss (41.53%) because of its less resistance nature compared to DSb 34 (30.72%).The recorded data revealed that DSb 34 is tolerant to stem fly damage but high yielding as compare to DSb 21.This indicates the importance of protection measures and variety selection in optimizing grain yield and minimizing yield losses.