Volume 1 (Issue 2) 2021 Article 21

ABSTRACT:

Cochorusolitorius is one of Africa’s most common leafy vegetables with high nutritional and socio economic value. Despite being frequently used, its varietal variety is unknown. Insect pests, notably Aulacophora species, continue to pose a threat to its domestication at various phases of development. As a result, a field trial was conducted to assess the control potential of Neem seed-oil extracts (NOE) for the management of cucurbit leaf beetles (CLB) on cochorus. Lambda-cyhalothrin at 2.5 ml/25m2 and water as controls were used to bioassay three concentrations of neem-seed-oil extracts (NOE) against Aulacophoraspecies: 0.25ppm, 0.5ppm, and 0.75ppm. The experiment was set up in a randomized complete block design, with five treatments replicated three times. The reduction in the adult insect population demonstrated the efficacy of the NOE treatments. The results showed that aqueous NOE and synthetic insecticide reduced the number of CLB significantly (p 0.05) when compared to the control. The synthetic-insecticide-treated plot shad the best CLB control, but it was not significantly different (p0.05) from the yield recorded in the plots sprayed with 0.75ppm aqueous NOE. Field trials revealed that both NOE and λ-cyhalothrin treatments significantly suppressed CLB infestations throughout the study period. However, the most effective NOE formulation was aqueous NOE at 0.75ppm, which caused a significant reduction in leaf damage and field infestation when compared to the untreated control, but was not significantly different from the effectiveness of λ-cyhalothrin. This implied that NOE at 0.75ppm was suitable as an environmentally friendly control measure.