Pests, diseases and crop protection practices in the smallholder sweetpotato production system of the highlands of Papua New Guinea
A peer-reviewed article of this Preprint also exists.
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Abstract
Sweetpotato (Ipomea batatans) is a food crop of global significance. The storage roots and foliage of crop are attacked by a wide range of pests and diseases. Whilst these are generally well controlled in developed countries using approaches such as clean planting material and monitoring with pheromone traps to guide insecticide use, research into methods suitable for developing countries has lagged. In Papua New Guinea (PNG), sweetpotato is grown extensively as a subsistence crop and commercial production as a cash crop is developing. We report results from a survey of 33 smallholder producers located in the Highlands of PNG where the crop is of particular importance. Surveys of interviewees’ crops showed high levels of pest and disease impact to foliage, stems and storage roots, especially in crops that were several years old. Weevils (Curculionidae) were reportedly the most damaging pests and scab (caused by the fungus Elisnoe batatus) the most damaging disease. Most producers reported root damage from the former and foliar damage from the latter but the general level of knowledge of pest and disease types was low. Despite the apparency of pest and disease signs and symptoms and recognition of their importance by farmers, a large majority of producers reported practiced no active pest or disease management. This was despite low numbers of farmers reporting use of traditional cultural practices including phytosanitary measures and insecticidal plants that had the scope for far wider use. Only one respondent reported use of insecticide though pesticides were available in nearby cities. This low level of pest and disease management in most cases, likely due to paucity in biological and technical knowledge among growers, hampers efforts to establish food security and constrains the development of sweetpotato as a cash crop.
Cite this as
2016. Pests, diseases and crop protection practices in the smallholder sweetpotato production system of the highlands of Papua New Guinea. PeerJ Preprints 4:e2394v1 https://doi.org/10.7287/peerj.preprints.2394v1note This preprint is not peer-reviewed. You may wish to reference the subsequent peer-reviewed version of this article.
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This is a submission to PeerJ for review.
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Competing Interests
Gurr serves as an Academic Editor for PeerJ. Gurr & Liu are married. Gurr, Kirchhof, Fujinuma and Sirabis are funded by the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research to conduct research arising in part from the results presented herein.
Author Contributions
Geoff M Gurr conceived and designed the experiments, performed the experiments, analyzed the data, wrote the paper, prepared figures and/or tables, reviewed drafts of the paper.
Jian Liu analyzed the data, wrote the paper, prepared figures and/or tables, reviewed drafts of the paper.
Anne C Johnson wrote the paper, prepared figures and/or tables, reviewed drafts of the paper.
Deane N Woruba performed the experiments, reviewed drafts of the paper.
Gunnar Kirchhof conceived and designed the experiments, reviewed drafts of the paper.
Ryosuke Fujinuma conceived and designed the experiments, performed the experiments, reviewed drafts of the paper.
William Sirabis performed the experiments, reviewed drafts of the paper.
Yapo Jeffery performed the experiments, reviewed drafts of the paper.
Ramakrishna Akkinapally conceived and designed the experiments, reviewed drafts of the paper.
Data Deposition
The following information was supplied regarding data availability:
The raw data has been supplied as a supplementary file.
Funding
This work was supported as a 'Small Research Activity' by the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (SMCN/2012/016). Gurr is supported by a Chinese Government Thousand Talents Program fellowship during which this manuscript was prepared. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.
