Comparative whitefly vector density and bean disease incidence on local and hybrid varieties in semi-arid Kenya
1 South East Kenya University, P.O. Box 170-90200, Kitui, Kenya.
2 Kenya Agricultural & Livestock Research Organization, P. O. Box 340. 90100, Machakos, Kenya.
Research Article
GSC Biological and Pharmaceutical Sciences, 2018, 05(03), 046–053.
Article DOI: 10.30574/gscbps.2018.5.3.0071
Publication history:
Received on 25 July 2018; revised on 25 November 2018; accepted on 03 December 2018
Abstract:
The dry bean, Phaseolus vulgaris (L.) production is constrained by various factors in the environment. A survey was carried out to determine incidence of various foliage diseases and possible influence by whitefly vectors among other environmental factors on bean grain yield. Highest farmer cultivar preference was a tie of improved KAT Bean 1 (B1) and local cultivar (Mwitemia) at 24% as total of each category. Production level was 0.3-1.6 t ha-1 per farm. Dominant whitefly species was Bemisia tabaci (Genn.) in over 90% of the farms. Laboratory analyses showed that disease incidence among the varieties showed improved varieties bearing highest incidence of both fungal and viral diseases compared to the local cultivars. Disease incidence showed little influence on bean grain yield. The updated information here is useful to breeding programmes to focus on local cultivars for higher disease-tolerant bean genotypes.
Keywords:
Improved; Local; Cultivars; Whitefly; Yield; Diseases
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Copyright © 2018 Author(s) retain the copyright of this article. This article is published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Liscense 4.0
