In Kenya, avocado is the fourth-most important fruit after banana, pineapple and mango. Phytophthora root rot disease is the most destructive disease in avocadoes, killing most trees in an orchard, and the young plants die immediately after infection. Now, researchers from the Kenya Agricultural Livestock and Research Organisation claim to have developed a biological control to manage this devastating avocado disease.
The Kenya Agricultural Livestock and Research Organisation is fighting it through Trichoderma, a soil-based fungus, as well as capacity-building farmers. “Kenya is gravitating towards biological systems where a farmer can actually produce biological controls to manage the diseases,” KALRO crop systems director Dr Lusike Wasilwa said.
She said the government is on alert and is taking measures to prevent the disease through the 10-year KAISP project, which is getting support from the New Zealand Institute and Food Research Limited.
KALRO senior research officer Dr Ruth Amata said they have been training farmers through building their capacity on the disease so that they may be aware and be able to pick out the symptoms of this disease before they even start an avocado orchard.
“Any tools that the farmer uses may be able to spread the disease. Shoes, boots, vehicles moving within an infected field, through water and also heavy rains can be able to move the soil from the infected area to a non-infected area,” Amata said.
She said farmers should ensure they buy their seedlings from reputable, reliable nurseries that observe high levels of hygiene. “The disease is soil borne and comes with the seedling right from the beginning when farmers are starting their orchards,” she said. “They need, therefore, to start off with seedlings that are Phytophthora-free, and this can only be done if they source their seeds from reliable dealers.”
Source: the-star.co.ke