A comprehensive table of the pests, their scientific names and remarks is given in Table 12. According to a study conducted in Bangladesh on small millets, Majid et al., (1989) reported that stem-fly (Atherigona miliaceae) was the major pest, but its damage was greater on Proso than on Fox tail millet. They reported that the extent of damage might vary from 15-25 percent depending on the year, location and genotype. The other minor insect pests that they reported in the millet fields are stripe borer, pink borer flea beetle, aphid and pentatomid bug.

Commonly found diseases on millets, which they reported were: Foot rot (Sclerotium rolfsii), leaf blast (Pyricularia setariae) leaf spot (Helmithosporium sp.), leaf and sheet blight (Drechslera sp.) And grain spot (Phoma sp., Fusarium sp. and Curvularia sp.)

Foot rot caused by Sclerotium rolfsii was reported to be an important disease and mortality is high on millet. The cultivars Bpm-52, Islampur and Telipara of Proso millet and Parameshpur and Shibnagar of Foxtail millet were found to be resistant to this disease in screening tests.

Small millets are vulnerable to different spectra of field pests and diseases (Rao, 1989). Finger millet is more vulnerable to diseases like blast and viruses and barnyard millet to smuts (Rao, 1989). Little and proso millets are more susceptible to pests like shoot fly while bores occur on finger and barnyard millet. The incorporation of genetic resistance offers the best choice in low

input crops like small millets. Cultural controls like early planting and appropriate cropping systems could also reduce the pest and disease incidence.

The insect problems on pearl millet are of less importance than on sorghum. The major problems are from stem borers; this is also true for finger millet. There is a head girdler that produces a spiral - like effect moving length-wise up the pearl millet head. Ins some conditions, army-worms and aphids can be a problem. The species are essentially the same as on sorghum, and are similar. Soft grain pearl millet is more subject to attack than hard grain (House et al., 1995).

Rodents like rats and mice are also an important pest of millet. They pose a keen threat especially in storage. For modern storage structures with plastered and sealed walls, rodents may not be too much of a problem. Also underground storage of sealed drum storage may keep away rodent attack. For most of the traditional storage structures, rodent attack is serious problem. They bore holes in bags and destroy the millet grains during storage. In addition to destroying the grains, rodents contaminate the grains with their excreta, thereby reducing the quality. In some parts of developing countries, such as Tanzania, Uganda, Kenya and Malawi, farmers use rat guards on mud-and-straw structures in order to check the infestation of rodents (Figure 23).

Striga hermonthica is an important weed pest of finger millet in East Africa. Control measures involve uprooting before seedling, crop rotation and the possible use of chemicals (Gupta et al., 1989). Insect and animal pests include: locusts and grasshoppers stem borers and foliage caterpillars.

Compared to other grains such as sorghum, relatively few studies have been made on the mycotoxin content in millets (McFarlane et al., 1995). Aspergillus terreus, a producer of patulin, has been isolated from pearl millet. A lot of other toxigenic fungi have also been isolated. Claviceps fusiformis Loveless, which produces alkaloids, is widely distributed on pearl millet, and causes major reductions in crop yield and quality.

Table 12. Major and minor pests of pearl millet