Tropicultura (Jan 2000)
Assessment of the Efficacy of Tephrosia vogelii Hook Leave Decoction to Control Major Pigeonpea Pests in Eastern Kenya
Abstract
An on-farm trial was carried out in Karaba county (900 m a. S.l.), Mbeere district, Kenya, with 14 farmers during the 1999-2000 short rainy season in order to assess the efficacy of tephrosia leave decoction to control the main pigeonpea field insect pests. In each farm, two plots were planted with the short-duration pigeonpea cultivar ICPL 87091, either in sole crop or in intercrop with maize. Seven farmers treated half of their pigeonpea plots three times successively at 15 days intervals with 400 g. ha-1 dimethoate, 885 g. ha-1 diazinon and 19.2 g. ha-1 lambda-cyhalothrin and sprayed the rest of their plots four times at a 10 days interval with a Tephrosia vogelii fresh leave decoction (atarate of 200 kg of leaves in 200 litres ha-1). In the other farms, half of the plots were sprayed with the same insecticide pest control programme as in the first ones while the rest of the plots was left unprotected. Almost no yield (14 kg. ha-1) was obtained in the unprotected plots while the average yield produced in the tephrosia treated plots (671 kg. ha-1 was only slightly lower than the mean production obtained in the insecticide protected plots (875 kg. ha-1).
