Transcript EFFECTS OF REFLECTIVE MULCH AND CHEMICAL (Dimethoate)

EFFECTS OF REFLECTIVE MULCH
AND CHEMICAL (Dimethoate)
IN CONTROLLING APHIDS
OKIRIGITI MOKOBI JOHNSON
A22/0033/2007
CROP PROTECTION (MAJOR)
SUPERVISOR: DORA KILALO
3rd June 2011
INTRODUCTION

Cowpeas are grown extensively in Africa. Africa
produces 2/3 of the world total. Nigeria and Niger
produce 49.3% of the world crop.
 It provides more than half the plant protein in
human diets in some areas of the semi humid tropics
 As food it is eaten in the form of dry seeds, green pods,
green seeds and tender green leaves.
Problem statement
 Aphids interfere with the growth and development of
cowpeas and spread viral pathogens, reducing yield
and quality(240 - 300 kg/Ha )
Justification
 Most farmers do not protect there cowpeas and a few
use chemicals. To improve yields, we need to use
farmer friendly tactics for pest management
Objectives
General objectives
• To improve cowpea yields by managing pests for food
security.
Specific objectives
 To determine the effectiveness of reflective mulch in
the control of aphids.
 To determine the effect of aphids on cowpeas.
HYPOTHESIS
 Mulching will not control aphids
Materials and methods
 A small plot measuring 5m * 5m, sub-divided into 9
equal portions
 Chemical ( Dimethoate)
 Mulching material (polythene paper)
 Cowpea seeds
 DAP fertilizer
 The experiment was established through RCBD system
 Data collected was subjected to analysis of variance by
Genstat software.
Treatments:
 Treatment 1.......................chemical application.
 Treatment 2.......................mulch/polythene paper.
 Treatments 3.......................control
3
2
1
2
1
3
1
3
2
RESULTS
Average score for insect damages
Treatme Samplin
g
nt
period
Pretreatme
nt
Chemica 2.33ab 2.43a
l
Re’
1.97b
1.83b
mulch
Control 2.47a
2.47a
Lsd
0.47
Cv%
12.8
1
2
1.60c
1.50
Treatme %decrea
nt mean se/
Control
1.55b
41.5
2.10b
1.90a
2b
24.5
2.93a
2.37a
2.65a
0.0
Total
number
of
aphids
Treatm Sampli
ent
Chemic
al
Re’mul
ch
Contro
l
Lsd
Cv%
ng
period
Pretreatm
ent
1
138.3a 292.3a 45.3c
2
52.7c
Treatm %decre
ent
ase/
Contro
mean
l
49.00c 88.0
108.0a 162.0b 172.0b 168.7b 170.35 58.3
b
152.0a 284.7a 407.7a 409.7a 408.7a 0.0
49.93
14.8
Yield in grams against treatment.
Discussions
 The chemical is toxic and killed the aphids and the other
insects thereby reducing their numbers drastically, hence
T1 had the highest harvest in green leaf yields.
 The reflective mulch kept away the aphids from the plots
through reflection, which resulted to low numbers in T2,
thus a commendable harvest was obtained as shown in the
graph.
 The control treatment had the largest number of aphids
and insect damages, because nothing was applied to
control them. This resulted to low yields as shown in the
graph.
Conclusion
 Reflective mulch was able to reduce aphid population
and the damages by other insects.
Recommendations
 I would recommend that small scale farmers adopt the
use of reflective mulch in the control of aphids and
other insects as an alternative to cut down on the
expenses of chemicals.
 I would also recommend that more research be done
on this idea and also teach people on how to apply
reflective mulch.