Assessment of avocada (Persea Americana) pests in Dhankuta Municipality, Nepal
Date
2023
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
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Publisher
Department of Zoology
Abstract
The cultivation of avocado is increasingly popular among farmers in Dhankuta
Municipality as it contributes to their economic growth. In this study, we assessed
pest abundance and diversity along with pest infestation in five selected avocado
orchards from the pocket area of the 27 avocado farming in this region. Pest
abundance and diversity were estimated using specific pheromone and light trapping
techniques from Nov- Dec, 2022. Total 1,693 individual were collected from the
study area. Among the five orchards that were sampled, the fifth orchard had notably
high abundance of species while, the fourth orchard exhibited a higher level of species
diversity, as indicated by Shannon H value 1.61. The highly abundant pest species is
Fruit fly Bactrocera dorsalis from the Dipteran family Tephritidae but the most
diverse species were from the Coleopteran family Scarabaeidae. Anomala dimidiata
and Xylotrupes gideon were found to be the major pest of avocado in this area. A
significant association was observed between damage to leaves and the presence of
insects. The relationship was analyzed using a chi-square test, resulting p-value of
0.007233. For the control of pest species in avocado orchards their local farmers were
observed implementing cultural techniques over other.
Description
Keywords
Economic growth, Fruit crop, Avocado farming, Cultural techniques