Maize Cyst Nematode (Heterodera zeae): Pest of Corn Crop and Their Biological Management

Looking to the importance of maize and their demand supply gap, high priority is being accorded to
maize production in the country. Beside this, production of maize is still very low due to number of
biotic and abiotic factors including losses caused by nematodes. Amongst nematode, Heterodera
zeae is considered to be important nematode associated with maize in India and famers experience
chronic losses because of high frequency of this nematode. Recently, for earning foreign exchange
and increasing economic returns to the farmers, attention has been paid to explore production of kind
of maize in India. Thus, It is essential to standardize the agro-techniques for different corns in order to
popularize it’s cultivation among farming community. Therefore, in this chapter we studied about a key
pest of corn and various aspects of maize cyst nematode, H. zeae.