EVALUATION OF SELECTED TOMATO VARIETIES FOR RESISTANCE TO WHITEFLIES AND MITES NAME; MUSYIMI NZIVO REG NO; A22/1744/2010 SUPERVISOR; DR. FAITH CHEBET.
INTRODUCTION Tomatoes are the most widely grown vegetable. They are good sources of vitamin A and C. They have been ranked first for increased production and more intensive research.(ruben L. Villareal, 1980) Tomatoes are an attracting cash crop for small scale farmers and a potential source of rural employment.
PROBLEM STATEMENT Tomato production in our country is low due to pests and disease, post harvest losses and poor management practices. Most farmers use chemicals to control pests. The chemicals pollute the environment and also kill beneficial organism. There is need to determine other methods of controlling pests such as planting resistant varieties.
JUSTIFICATION Tomatoes are widely grown for various uses. Production constraint has been pests. Use of chemicals has posed great challenge to environment. There is need to evaluate different varieties of tomato resistant to pests to solve the problem. Planting of resistant varieties will reduce cost of production and other negative effects of chemicals.
OBJECTIVES SPECIFIC OBJECTIVE To determine the most resistant variety of tomato to whiteflies and mites. OVERALL OBJECTIVE To increase total production of tomatoes per hectare through planting resistant varieties.
MATERIALS AND METHODS The study was carried out at Kabete campus field station from January and march. The experiment was laid in a randomized complete block design. Each plot was measuring 2.7m by 2.4m separated by 0.75m path between the plots with a total of 20 plants The experiment was conducted during dry condition and irrigation was required to keep soil moisture. There were four treatments replicated three times each.
MATERIALS cont; The local varieties mostly grown by farmers within the area were grown. These included the following, Riogrande, Cal J, M82 and Money maker. Data collection was carried out weekly from three leaves per plant on five plants selected randomly in each plot. All data collected was subjected to analysis of variance(anova) using GENSTAT. Means were separated using least significance difference (LSD) at 0.05.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION Source of variation d.f. s.s. m.s. v.r. F pr. blocks stratum 2 4.408 2.204 0.97 blocks.*units* stratum treatments 3 51.746 17.249 7.58 <.001 data no 3 11.813 3.938 1.73 0.162 treatments.data_no 9 14.971 1.663 0.73 0.680 Residual 222 505.058 2.275 Total 239 587.996 Since the v.r. ratio of treatments is greater than the f table value thus the treatments are significant
LSD and table of means treatment means Difference between means T1 1.9 0.333 0.5427 T2 1.7 0.533 0.5427 T3 0.967 1.266 0.5427 T4 2.233 LSD
RESULTS cont Bar graph showing whiteflies population against various varieties 3 2.5 means of pest population per week 2 1.5 1 Riogrande M 82 Cal j moneymaker 0.5 0 1 2 3 4 treatments
means of mites per week Bar graph showing mites population against different tomato varieties 12 10 8 6 Riogrande M 82 4 2 0 1 2 3 4 treatments
DISCUSSION The trend of whiteflies and mites during the cropping period in all variety was not similar. Cal J had lowest number of whiteflies and mites compared to the other varieties. The highest mean number of whiteflies and mites was recorded in plots planted with moneymaker and Riogrande respectively. The results shows that varieties differ in susceptibility to infestation by both pests.
DISCUSSION cont Rainfall influenced pests population to drop drastically during the fourth week of data collection. The infestation by both whiteflies and mites was significantly different between the variety. Cal J was the most resistant variety to both whiteflies and mites compared to the others.
CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION This study evaluated tomato varieties to identify resistant variety to whiteflies and mites. Resistant varieties are important in farming because they have ability to grow and produce despite the presence of pests. Cal J was infested with lower number of both whiteflies and mites.
Cont We therefore recommend that.. I. Farmers can grow Cal J variety because it is more resistant to whiteflies and mites II. Further research can be done to determine whether the pests population will have impact on yields.