Identification and Management of Pests and Diseases of Garden Crops in Santa, Cameroon

Aims: This work sought to identify the pests and diseases that hinder successful gardening and the pesticides used to manage these pests and their frequencies of application.

Place and Duration of Study: This work was carried out in the Santa Area of the North West Region of Cameroon. It was conducted from June 2013 to February 2014.

Methodology: The study was carried out on six farms in Santa, a Sub-division in Mezam Division of the North West Region of Cameroon. On each of these farms, an area of 20 x 20 m was mapped and the plants therein observed. Insect pests, diseases and the pesticides used for their mitigation were identified at each growth stage.

Results: The main diseases identified were clubroot (Plasmodiophora brassicae) and late blight (Phythophthora infestans) while Aphids (Myzus persicae S.), whiteflies (Bemisia tabaci) fruit worms (Helicoverpa amigera), Cutworms, fruitfly (Dacus punctatifrons) and grasshoppers (Zonocerus variegatus) were the prominent insect pests. The most applied pesticides were Cypermethrine and Dimethoate against insects, and Mancozeb and Maneb against fungi.

Conclusion: From this study the most prominent pest of cabbage was the black cutworm (Agrotis ipsilon), which affected the early growing stage. The main disease that affected tomato was blight, seen in both seasons but its severity was greater in the rainy season. Insect pests were a major problem in the dry season causing high economic losses than in the wet season.