scholarly journals The Effects, Distribution and Management Options for Major Banana Diseases in Tanzania

Author(s):  
Kennedy Elisha Jomanga ◽  

Emergences of Fusarium wilt, Bacterial wilt and Black Sigatoka diseases have caused banana yield loss of up 100% in Tanzania. Though there have been accumulated empirical data on yield decline due to diseases, lack of disease knowledge and selection of appropriate control methods has been a limiting factor in improving banana production. Therefore, this review focused on identifying different management options for major banana diseases, for purpose of providing reference and decision making tools to farmers, extension officers, researchers and decision makers. Using online resources, we identified several methods which are affordable, applicable and reliable for disease management in the country. These includes sanitation, intercropping, crop rotation, prevention, irrigation, drainage improvement, quarantine, use of silicon/calcium and awareness campaigns. Other method was biological control, which need further research on its applicability and impact on the environment. Moreover the use of resistant cultivars though being important, there is little achievement which have been made on breeding for resistance, because banana are polyploidy, parthenocarpic, have long generation time, loss of resistance and poor acceptability of new cultivars. We also found that, no single method is perfect for management of diseases; this is due to the fact that, in agricultural system, disease challenges rarely occur singly. So the approach to disease management should be pragmatic and geared towards integration of several appropriate methods. We hereby conclude that, researches should focus on identifying the best and feasible combination of control methods that can be used by Smallholder farmers.

Agriculture ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 298
Author(s):  
Fekremariam Asargew Mihretie ◽  
Atsushi Tsunekawa ◽  
Nigussie Haregeweyn ◽  
Enyew Adgo ◽  
Mitsuru Tsubo ◽  
...  

Teff is an important crop for smallholder farmers in Ethiopia. Improved crop management practices are needed to increase teff productivity and decrease production costs. Here, we used a split–split plot design to evaluate the impacts of different tillage, sowing, and soil compaction practices, and their combinations, on agronomic performance, weed population, lodging, and cost in teff production at the Aba Gerima watershed in northwestern Ethiopia in 2018–2020. Reduced tillage (RT) improved soil moisture, resulting in increased agronomic performance and decreased production costs compared with conventional tillage (CT); however, the weed population was substantially larger with RT than with CT. Row planting (RP) reduced seed cost and lodging but increased sowing and weeding costs compared with broadcast planting (BP). Plant population and leaf area index were substantially greater with BP than with RP during early-stage growth, but this reversed during late-stage growth. Despite labor costs being significantly greater with (WC) compaction than without (NC), little to no differences were observed in the weed population or in agronomic performance. Partial cost–benefit analysis revealed that RT–RP–WC followed by RT–RP–NC was the most economical treatment combination, suggesting that RT–RP–NC could be a labor-effective means of increasing teff production by smallholder farms in Ethiopia.


1995 ◽  
Vol 71 (833) ◽  
pp. 136-142 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. D. Chisholm ◽  
S. J. Carne ◽  
J. M. Fitzpatrick ◽  
N. J. George ◽  
J. C. Gingell ◽  
...  

Water ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (9) ◽  
pp. 1833 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alice Mayer ◽  
Michele Rienzner ◽  
Sandra Cesari de Maria ◽  
Marco Romani ◽  
Alberto Lasagna ◽  
...  

European rice production is concentrated in limited areas of a small number of countries. Italy is the largest European producer with over half of the total production grown on an area of 220,000 hectares, predominantly located in northern Italy. The traditional irrigation management (wet seeding and continuous flooding until few weeks before harvest—WFL) requires copious volumes of water. In order to propose effective ‘water-saving’ irrigation alternatives, there is the need to collect site-specific observational data and, at the same time, to develop agro-hydrological models to upscale field/farm experimental data to a spatial scale of interest to support water management decisions and policies. The semi-distributed modelling system developed in this work, composed of three sub-models (agricultural area, groundwater zone, and channel network), allows us to describe water fluxes dynamics in rice areas at the irrigation district scale. Once calibrated for a 1000 ha district located in northern Italy using meteorological, hydrological and land-use data of a recent four-year period (2013–2016), the model was used to provide indications on the effects of different irrigation management options on district irrigation requirements, groundwater levels and irrigation/drainage network efficiency. Four scenarios considering a complete conversion of rice irrigation management over the district were implemented: WFL; DFL—dry seeding and delayed flooding; WDA—alternate wetting and drying; WFL-W—WFL followed by post-harvest winter flooding from 15 November to 15 January. Average results for the period 2013–2016 showed that DFL and WDA would lead to a reduction in summer irrigation needs compared to WFL, but also to a postponement of the peak irrigation month to June, already characterized by a strong water demand from other crops. Finally, summer irrigation consumption for WFL-W would correspond to WFL, suggesting that the considered winter flooding period ended too early to influence summer crop water needs.


2014 ◽  
Vol 51 (1) ◽  
pp. 17-41 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. NEZOMBA ◽  
F. MTAMBANENGWE ◽  
R. CHIKOWO ◽  
P. MAPFUMO

SUMMARYResearch has proved that integrated soil fertility management (ISFM) can increase crop yields at the field and farm scales. However, its uptake by smallholder farmers in Africa is often constrained by lack of technical guidelines on effective starting points and how the different ISFM options can be combined to increase crop productivity on a sustainable basis. A 4-year study was conducted on sandy soils (<10% clay) on smallholder farms in eastern Zimbabwe to assess how sequencing of different ISFM options may lead to incremental gains in soil productivity, enhanced efficiency of resource use, and increase crop yields at field scale. The sequences were primarily based on low-quality organic resources, nitrogen-fixing green manure and grain legumes, and mineral fertilizers. To enable comparison of legume and maize grain yields among treatments, yields were converted to energy (kilocalories) and protein (kg) equivalents. In the first year, ‘Manure-start’, a cattle manure-based sequence, yielded 3.4 t ha−1of maize grain compared with 2.5 and 0.4 t ha−1under a woodland litter-based sequence (‘Litter-start’) and continuous unfertilized maize control, respectively. The ‘Manure-start’ produced 12 × 106kilocalories (kcal); significantly (p< 0.05) out-yielding ‘Litter start’ and a fertilizer-based sequence (‘Fertilizer-start’) by 50%. A soyabean-based sequence, ‘Soya-start’, gave the highest protein production of 720 kg against <450 kg for the other sequencing treatments. In the second year, the sequences yielded an average of 5.7 t ha−1of maize grain, producing over 19 × 106kcal and 400 kg of protein. Consequently, the sequences significantly out-performed farmers’ designated poor fields by ~ fivefold. In the third year, ‘Soya-start’ gave the highest maize grain yield of 3.7 t ha−1; translating to 1.5 and 3 times more calories than under farmers’ designated rich and poor fields, respectively. In the fourth year, ‘Fertilizer-start’ produced the highest calories and protein of 14 × 106kcal and 340 kg, respectively. Cumulatively over 4 years, ‘Manure-start’ and ‘Soya-start’ gave the highest calories and protein, out-performing farmers’ designated rich and poor fields. Sunnhemp (Crotalaria junceaL.)-based sequences, ‘Green-start’ and ‘Fertilizer-start’, recorded the highest gains in plant available soil P of ~ 4 mg kg−1over the 4-year period. Assessment of P agronomic efficiencies showed significantly more benefits under the ISFM-based sequences than under farmers’ designated rich and poor fields. Based on costs of seed, nutrients and labour, ‘Soya-start’ gave the best net present value over the 4 years, while ‘Fertilizer-start’ was financially the least attractive. Overall, the ISFM-based sequences were more profitable than fields designated as rich and poor by farmers. We concluded that ISFM-based sequences can provide options for farm-level intensification by different categories of smallholder farmers in Southern Africa.


2006 ◽  
Vol 57 (11) ◽  
pp. 1137 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Pande ◽  
J. Galloway ◽  
P. M. Gaur ◽  
K. H. M. Siddique ◽  
H. S. Tripathi ◽  
...  

Botrytis grey mould (BGM), caused by Botrytis cinerea Pers. ex. Fr., is an economically important disease of chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.), especially in areas where cool, cloudy, and humid weather persists. Several epidemics of BGM causing complete crop loss in the major chickpea-producing countries have been reported. The pathogen B. cinerea mainly survives between seasons on infected crop debris and seeds. Despite extensive investigations on pathological, physiological, and molecular characteristics of B. cinerea causing grey mould type diseases on chickpea and several other hosts, the nature of infection processes and genetic basis of pathogen variability have not been clearly established. This lack of information coupled with the need for repeated application of chemical fungicides forced the deployment of host plant resistance (HPR) as a major option for BGM management. Effective and repeatable controlled-environment and field-screening techniques have been developed for identification of HPR. Of the selected portion of chickpea germplasm evaluated for BGM resistance, only few accessions belonging to both cultivated and wild Cicer spp. were tolerant to BGM, and the search for higher levels of disease resistance continues. Fungicide application based on disease predictive models is helpful in precision-based fungicide application. Integrated disease management (IDM) of BGM has proved more effective than any of the individual disease management components in large-scale, on-farm studies conducted in India, Nepal, and Bangladesh. Further information on the biology of B. cinerea and epidemiology of the disease is needed to strengthen the IDM programs. In this paper the biology of B. cinerea including its variability, epidemiology of BGM, identified sources of resistance, and other management options, and available information on biochemical and genetic basis of disease resistance have been reviewed with a mention of future research priorities.


2016 ◽  
Vol 22 (1-2) ◽  
Author(s):  
I. J. Holb

In this minreview, mechanical and physical control against apple fungal diseases among non-chemical control approaches were summarized. This overview listed five groups of mechanical and physical control methods:  pruning, removal of inoculum sources, shredding of leaf litter, burying of inoculum sources and flaming of leaf litter. These methods were shown to reduce succesfully infection potential of inoculum sources in orchards and these non-chemical control measures are one of the most essential approaches for preventative fungal disease management. However, most of these methods are not widely spread in the apple-growing practice due to relatively low control efficacy, medium to high labour costs and/or time limits during the season.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (11) ◽  
pp. 11
Author(s):  
Esther Gloria Mbabazi ◽  
Enoch M. Kikulwe ◽  
Joseph Lule Kyanjo ◽  
Nasser Mulumba ◽  
Edward Kato ◽  
...  

The livelihoods of millions of banana-farming households have been affected by Banana Xanthomonas Wilt (BXW) in Uganda for nearly two decades. The disease has no known cure, all banana cultivars grown are susceptible to it and it is endemic in all banana-producing regions in the country. This study analysed the long-term impact of the disease on the livelihoods of banana-producing households. Using a balanced panel dataset of 1,056 households, which were visited in 2015 and revisited in 2018, provides the opportunity to empirically measure the long-term consequences of the disease on farmers&rsquo; economic wellbeing in the four major banana growing regions in Uganda. We find striking results pertinent to disease incidence, success in disease management, household income and poverty when deploying BXW control practices. Although the disease has remained present in farmers&rsquo; fields, there is a significant reduction in household poverty levels. Results show that some farmers expanded the production of beans and coffee without encroaching on their banana plantations. Increase in bean production was largely through intercropping. Investment in coffee was constrained by land ownership, hence only a viable venture for the wealthy farmers who own bigger pieces of land. Land-poor farmers continued to rely on bananas for their livelihoods. Consistent participation in disease management training significantly influenced adoption of the cultural control practices. Consequently, farming households that systematically adopted these practices were able to maintain low levels of disease incidence, improve productivity by 438 kg/ha/year and increased their daily and annual household income by US$1.75 and UGX 2.383 million (US$648), respectively. The findings suggest that banana is an important crop to smallholder farmers and expansion into other cash crops requires bigger resource outlays, and that despite continued exposure to BXW, farmers&rsquo; income increased over time. Farmers should continuously and systematically use the recommended control practices to avoid BXW resurgence and, consequently, a reduction in their income.


OCL ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 26 ◽  
pp. 2 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leire Molinero-Ruiz

The control of soilborne crop pathogens is conditioned by the limited management options due to difficult access to active infection courts and to restrictions in the use of synthetic pesticides in Europe. For most soilborne sunflower pathogens, an effective management relies on genetic resistance which is, however, hindered by new pathogen populations (new races). Special emphasis is thus put on updated monitoring and characterization of pathogens and on the enlargement of the set of tools for disease management. Concerning characterization, advances on the population structure of Verticillium dahliae affecting sunflower by means of genetic, molecular and pathogenic approaches are presented. Also in relation to increases of sunflower wilt diseases recently observed, the fungus Cadophora malorum has been identified in Russia and reported as a new pathogen of this crop. Third, new races of Plasmopara halstedii (sunflower downy mildew), have been identified in Spain and Portugal. Most of them have a high virulence, since they overcome several genes for resistance. With regard to alternatives for disease control, entomopathogenic fungi (EF) constitute a novel tool. Used for years in Integrated Pest Management strategies due to their efficacy in controlling insect pests affecting crops, new ecological roles of these fungi have recently been reported. The EF species Beauveria bassiana and Metarhizium brunneum have been assessed by their in vitro effect against V. dahliae and C. malorum by our research group. Our results suggest that antibiosis and/or competition for ecological niche are operating in some EF-pathogen interactions. In summary, pathogen characterization is essential for genetic resistance for worldwide environments of sunflower production. Moreover, the security of sunflower yield and profitability is dependent not only on effective genetic resistance, but also on additional new control options that can be included in successful strategies of sunflower disease management.


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