Study on Insect Pests of Coffee and Their management Practices in Madanpokhara VDC, Palpa, Nepal

Abstract

Coffee is a perennial plant grown in the highest range of soil and climatic conditionsin the tropics and subtropics. Being grown in poly-culture, it provides habitat fornumber of insect pests in different parts and in different season with variety ofdamage patterns. A study was done at Madanpokhara VDC of Palpa district in theyear 2006 for studying the insect pests of coffee plant and their management practicesfollowed by the farmers. The investigation followed the Key Informant Survey andFocused Group Discussion to know over all situation of coffee. The Field Visitsrevealed that the white stem borer was the main threat to the coffee plant followed byvarious sapsuckers like brown scale, mealy bug, aphids and defoliators likeCatontopssp, Calasposoma sp, Ophrida sp.The crop loss due to insect other than white stemborer is yet not estimated. For the control of pests, botanical pesticides are applied.Except Bordeaux mixture, no other chemical pesticides are used the botanicalpesticides are made by farmers themselves from locally available plants havingpesticides properties. The plants that were used for the preparation of pesticidesconsists neem (Azedirechta indica), china berry (Melia azadirach), siam weed(Eupatorium odoratum), mint (Mentha arvensis), marigold (Tagetes sp), Mug wart(Artemesia vulgaris), tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum). Regular monitoring of the borerduring time of egg laying and emergence was the best prevention from the infestationof borer.