scholarly journals Solanum linnaeanum and Solanum sisymbriifolium as a sustainable strategy for the management of Meloidogyne chitwoodi

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura Soraia Perpétuo ◽  
Maria J. M. da Cunha ◽  
Maria Teresa Batista ◽  
Isabel Luci Conceição

AbstractRoot-knot nematodes (RKN), Meloidogyne spp., are important crop pests that cause severe losses in crop production worldwide, reducing both productivity and crop quality. Meloidogyne chitwoodi Golden, O'Bannon, Santo & Finley, 1980 is considered a quarantine organism by the European and Mediterranean Plant Protection Organization (EPPO) causing damage in tomato and potato crops. The development of nonchemical and sustainable management strategies to reduce nematode damage is crucial. The resistance of Solanum linnaeanum Hepper & P.-M.L. Jaeger and S. sisymbriifolium Lamarck cv. Sis 6001 to M. chitwoodi was evaluated based on gall index (GI), the Bridge & Page (1980) rating chart and reproduction factor (RF). Both plant species were resistant to M. chitwoodi. Solanum linnaeanum had an average of 519 small root swellings/plant, with 45% adult nematodes inside the roots, all males. Solanum sisymbriifolium had GI ≤ 2 and RF ≤ 1 with a high percentage (69%) of nematodes inside the roots that did not develop beyond the sexually undifferentiated second-stage. The use of S. linnaeanum as a new source of resistance is a good alternative for the control of RKN in the quest to develop nonchemical and sustainable management strategies to protect crops.

Agronomy ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 339
Author(s):  
Vishal Gupta ◽  
Akash Sharma ◽  
Pradeep Kumar Rai ◽  
Sushil Kumar Gupta ◽  
Brajeshwar Singh ◽  
...  

Saffron, comprising of dried stigmas of the plant known as Crocus sativus, is one of the most important and scantly cultivated agricultural products. It has been used as a precious spice for the last at least 3500 years. Due to its numerous medicinal qualities and pharmacological applications, it is considered as a “golden condiment”, and its demand and consumptions has risen over a period of time. Although efforts are continuously being made to enhance the productivity in the traditional areas and promote the cultivation of saffron in the newer areas, there are several constraints hindering these efforts. Prevalence of corm rot is one such limiting factor which results in the reduction in saffron production and decline in the area under its cultivation. The disease not only reduces the yield substantially, but also adversely affects the production of daughter corms. Complete understanding and knowledge about the disease is still lacking due to the inadequate information about its etiology and epidemiology. Moreover, due to the non-availability of resistant genotypes and lack of improved cultural practices, presently no effective and sustainable management strategies are available. This review article gives an overall account of the history and impact of saffron corm rot, its present status, yield losses caused by it, dynamics of the pathogens associated with the disease, their survival and dispersal, factors influencing disease intensity, epidemiology and sustainable management strategies. As comprehensive information on the disease is presently not available, an attempt has been made to review the current knowledge regarding corm rot of saffron. The information about the disease discussed here can eventually be beneficial for the growers, students, researchers, plant protection organizations, development departments, extension workers, policy makers, government agencies and public organizations.


Author(s):  
Hasrat Arjjumend ◽  
Konstantia Koutouki ◽  
Olga Donets

The use of unsustainable levels of chemical fertilizers and plant protection chemicals has resulted in a steady decline in soil and crop productivity the world over. Soil biology has undergone irreversible damage, coupled with a high concentration of toxic chemical residues in plant tissues and human bodies. Agricultural practices must evolve to sustainably meet the growing global demand for food without irreversibly damaging soil. Microbial biocontrol agents have tremendous potential to bring sustainability to agriculture in a way that is safe for the environment. Biopesticides do not kill non-target insects, and biosafety is ensured because biopesticides act as antidotes and do not lead to chemical contamination in the soil. This article is part of a larger study conducted in Ukraine by researchers at the Université de Montréal with the support of Mitacs and Earth Alive Clean Technologies. The responses of farmers who use biofertilizers (“user farmers”) and those who do not (“non-user farmers”), along with the responses of manufacturers or suppliers of biofertilizers, and research and development (R&D) scientists are captured to demonstrate the advantages of applying microbial biopesticides to field crops. Participants reported a 15-30% increase in yields and crop production after the application of biopesticides. With the use of biopesticides, farmers cultivated better quality fruits, grains, and tubers with a longer shelf life. Moreover, while the risk of crop loss remains high (60-70%) with chemically grown crops, this risk is reduced to 33% on average if crops are grown using biopesticides. The findings indicate that a large proportion of farmers would prefer to use biopesticides if they are effective and high quality products. In this context, the quality and effectiveness of products is therefore very important. Despite their benefits to soil, human health, and ecosystems, biopesticides face significant challenges and competition vis-à-vis synthetic pesticides for a variety of reasons. Therefore, the development of biopesticides must overcome the problems of poor quality products, short shelf life, delayed action, high market costs, and legal/registration issues.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Fathiya M. Khamis ◽  
Fidelis L. O. Ombura ◽  
Inusa J. Ajene ◽  
Komivi S. Akutse ◽  
Sevgan Subramanian ◽  
...  

AbstractWhiteflies (Hemiptera: Aleyrodidae) are devastating agricultural pests of economic importance vectoring pathogenic plant viruses. Knowledge on their diversity and distribution in Kenya is scanty, limiting development of effective sustainable management strategies. The present study is aimed at identifying whitefly pest species present in Kenya across different agroecological zones and establish predictive models for the most abundant species in Africa. Whiteflies were sampled in Kenya from key crops known to be severely infested and identified using 16S rRNA markers and complete mitochondrial genomes. Four whitefly species were identified: Aleyrodes proletella, Aleurodicus dispersus, Bemisia afer and Trialeurodesvaporariorum, the latter being the most dominant species across all the agroecology. The assembly of complete mitogenomes and comparative analysis of all 13 protein coding genes confirmed the identities of the four species. Furthermore, prediction spatial models indicated high climatic suitability of T. vaporariorum in Africa, Europe, Central America, parts of Southern America, parts of Australia, New Zealand and Asia. Consequently, our findings provide information to guide biosecurity agencies on protocols to be adopted for precise identification of pest whitefly species in Kenya to serve as an early warning tool against T. vaporariorum invasion into unaffected areas and guide appropriate decision-making on their management.


Author(s):  
G. Kinyanjui ◽  
F. M. Khamis ◽  
F. L. O. Ombura ◽  
E. U. Kenya ◽  
S. Ekesi ◽  
...  

Abstract Tuta absoluta (Meyrick) has become a serious menace to sustainable production of tomato in Kenya. A survey was conducted between April 2015 and June 2016 to determine its distribution, abundance, infestation, and damage levels on tomato, and associated natural enemies. Trap counts of T. absoluta moths were recorded in all surveyed 29 counties, which indicated its nationwide distribution irrespective of altitude. Tuta absoluta was present in both open fields and greenhouses. The highest moth/trap/day was 115.38 ± 15.90. Highest leaf infestation was 92.22% and the highest number of mines and larvae per leaf were 3.71 ± 0.28 and 2.16 ± 0.45, respectively. Trap captures in terms of moth/trap/day were linearly and positively related to leaf infestations in open fields (R2 = 0.81) and greenhouses (R2 = 0.61). Highest fruits’ infestation and damage were 60.00 and 59.61%, respectively, while the highest number of mines per fruit was 7.50 ± 0.50. Nesidiocoris tenuis (Reuter) and Macrolophus pygmaeus (Rambur) were identified as predators of T. absoluta larvae. Nine species of larval parasitoids were recovered from infested foliage, with a combined parasitism of 7.26 ± 0.65%. Hockeria species was the most dominant (31.25%) and accounted for 12.88 ± 1.47% parasitism. Two species of larval parasitoids, Hockeria and Necremnus were obtained from sentinel plants with an average parasitism of 1.13 ± 0.25. The overall abundance and parasitism rates of recovered natural enemies were low to effectively control the field populations of T. absoluta. These findings form the basis of researching and developing effective and sustainable management strategies for the pest.


2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (5) ◽  
pp. 309
Author(s):  
Zixu Wang ◽  
Chenwei Nie ◽  
Hongwu Wang ◽  
Yong Ao ◽  
Xiuliang Jin ◽  
...  

Maize (Zea mays L.), one of the most important agricultural crops in the world, which can be devastated by lodging, which can strike maize during its growing season. Maize lodging affects not only the yield but also the quality of its kernels. The identification of lodging is helpful to evaluate losses due to natural disasters, to screen lodging-resistant crop varieties, and to optimize field-management strategies. The accurate detection of crop lodging is inseparable from the accurate determination of the degree of lodging, which helps improve field management in the crop-production process. An approach was developed that fuses supervised and object-oriented classifications on spectrum, texture, and canopy structure data to determine the degree of lodging with high precision. The results showed that, combined with the original image, the change of the digital surface model, and texture features, the overall accuracy of the object-oriented classification method using random forest classifier was the best, which was 86.96% (kappa coefficient was 0.79). The best pixel-level supervised classification of the degree of maize lodging was 78.26% (kappa coefficient was 0.6). Based on the spatial distribution of degree of lodging as a function of crop variety, sowing date, densities, and different nitrogen treatments, this work determines how feature factors affect the degree of lodging. These results allow us to rapidly determine the degree of lodging of field maize, determine the optimal sowing date, optimal density and optimal fertilization method in field production.


Author(s):  
Marianna Fenzi ◽  
Paul Rogé ◽  
Angel Cruz-Estrada ◽  
John Tuxill ◽  
Devra Jarvis

AbstractLocal seed systems remain the fundamental source of seeds for many crops in developing countries. Climate resilience for small holder farmers continues to depend largely on locally available seeds of traditional crop varieties. High rainfall events can have as significant an impact on crop production as increased temperatures and drought. This article analyzes the dynamics of maize diversity over 3 years in a farming community of Yucatán state, Mexico, where elevated levels of precipitation forced farmers in 2012 to reduce maize diversity in their plots. We study how farmers maintained their agroecosystem resilience through seed networks, examining the drivers influencing maize diversity and seed provisioning in the year preceding and following the 2012 climatic disturbance (2011–2013). We found that, under these challenging circumstances, farmers focused their efforts on their most reliable landraces, disregarding hybrids. We show that farmers were able to recover and restore the diversity usually cultivated in the community in the year following the critical climate event. The maize dynamic assessed in this study demonstrates the importance of community level conservation of crop diversity. Understanding farmer management strategies of agrobiodiversity, especially during a challenging climatic period, is necessary to promote a more tailored response to climate change in traditional farming systems.


2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 580-593
Author(s):  
M A. Bryzgalina ◽  

The demand for organic food is a prerequisite for the formation and development of organic agriculture, and the task of promoting it on domestic and foreign markets is among the priority ones. A serious problem in the sale of this category of goods to the domestic food markets of the country is the distrust of potential consumers. It is possible to solve this problem through certification and the use of a well-known brand. Certification of manufacturers of environmentally friendly products is a rather complicated and expensive procedure, therefore it is not available for most agricultural producers in the Saratov region. However, basing on the fact that today the task of developing the organic agriculture industry is set at the level of the government of the country, it is possible to solve this problem with the support of the state. The article examines the enterprises of the Saratov region of various legal forms, which do not use fertilizers and chemical means of crop protection in the production of crop production. Using the example of agricultural organizations and farms in the region, a mechanism for subsidizing certification of the most promising producers of organic wheat (winter and spring) is proposed, which includes the allocation of targeted subsidies for its implementation. As a criterion for the selection of applicants for this type of state support, as well as the distribution of budgetary resources between them, it is proposed to use the average indicator (potential) of the annual volume of organic production in the work. As a result, direct participants in certification subsidies were selected from the compiled sample of the studied enterprises that do not use chemical plant protection products and mineral fertilizers and the total annual volume of their marketable wheat was determined. The author determined the maximum cost of quality confirmation procedures for one enterprise, taking into account the increasing coefficients per one day of inspection, and also established the largest amount of budgetary resources that may be spent on the implementation of the proposed measure. In order to evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed certification subsidy mechanism, the author developed formulas for determining the selling price of products in the promising organic segment, taking into account its increase by the level of premium premiums.


Plants ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (12) ◽  
pp. 2747
Author(s):  
Thomas Armand ◽  
Luâna Korn ◽  
Elodie Pichon ◽  
Marlène Souquet ◽  
Mélissandre Barbet ◽  
...  

Neonicotinoids are widely used to protect fields against aphid-borne viral diseases. The recent ban of these chemical compounds in the European Union has strongly impacted rapeseed and sugar beet growing practices. The poor sustainability of other insecticide families and the low efficiency of prophylactic methods to control aphid populations and pathogen introduction strengthen the need to characterize the efficiency of new plant protection products targeting aphids. In this study, the impact of Movento® (Bayer S.A.S., Leverkusen, Germany), a tetrameric acid derivative of spirotetramat, on Myzus persicae and on viral transmission was analyzed under different growing temperatures. The results show (i) the high efficiency of Movento® to protect rapeseed and sugar beet plants against the establishment of aphid colonies, (ii) the impact of temperature on the persistence of the Movento® aphicid properties and (iii) a decrease of approximately 10% of the viral transmission on treated plants. These observations suggest a beneficial effect of Movento® on the sanitary quality of treated crops by directly reducing primary infections and indirectly altering, through aphid mortality, secondary infections on which the spread of disease within field depends. These data constitute important elements for the future development of management strategies to protect crops against aphid-transmitted viruses.


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