Fluted Pumpkin known as Telfairia occidentalis is an important vegetable crop in the tropics, cultivated for its leaf vegetable and edible seeds. It is a plant with a wide range of virtues but nevertheless; it is threatened by large scale fungal attacks. In order to manage the problem of food security and meet up with the production of this crop, this study was carried out to assess the effect of animal manure on the incidence and severity of leaf spot disease of Fluted Pumpkin and to determine the pathogenicity test of white leaf spot in Dschang. This research was done in the Faculty of Agronomy and Agricultural Sciences experimental farms at the University of Dschang from November 2017 to May 2018. The field layout was Randomized Complete Block Design with three treatments (poultry manure, piggery manure and control) and three replications. Each replicate consisted of six plots, giving a total of eighteen plots per treatment. In each treatment, fluted pumpkin was spaced at 1 m × 1 m apart. Application of organic manure was done at 3 weeks after emergence and data collection were carried out weekly from 42 DAP. Pathogenicity test was conducted after the establishment of lesions on the leaves. Data were analyzed using descriptive and ANOVA. It was observed that piggery manure treatment had the highest disease incidence (DI = 86.89) compared to the control (DI = 85.42) and poultry manure (DI = 65.74). The pathogenicity test revealed that Phoma sorghina was the causal agent for leaf spot disease in fluted pumpkin with a frequency of 18. Disease incidence and severity was reduced in poultry manure, followed by the control with piggery manure having more disease. Therefore, poultry manure had a better man-How to cite this paper:

This study was conducted in 2015 in

Orthodox medical practice depends greatly on the use of high throughput (HTP) pure pharmaceutical new chemical entities, with a purity that can easily be evaluated and whose efficacy and toxicity can show a dose-dependent, clear structure-activity relationships (SAR). On the contrary, natural products contain mixtures of natural bioactive metabolites that have not undergone any chemical analyses and whose mechanism of action is not known. Medicinal mushrooms have been used throughout the history of mankind for the treatment of various diseases including cancer. Nowadays they have been intensively studied and generated research interest in an attempt to reveal the chemical nature and mechanisms of action of their bioactive molecules. Targeted treatment of diseases, non-harmful for healthy tissues, has become a major objective in recent times and metabolites of fungal origin provide a vast reservoir of potential new chemical entities. There are many examples of mushrooms common for use globally that demonstrate the complex nature of their pharmaceutical potential This review paper attempts to show that some aspects of fungotherapy of the disease have been well studied. We also give an insight into the role of mushroom metabolites for treatment of diseases types that are especially susceptible to the fungal treatments.

The role played by youth in agriculture cannot be overemphasized, while agribusinesses are important generators of employment and income worldwide. Improving the sustainability of food value chains can benefit millions of rural poor people living in developing countries, especially young women. Despite policies and programs aimed at encouraging agricultural entrepreneurs, they are still facing challenges such as high-cost agrochemicals, limited access to credit, price volatility, etc. which seriously affect their capacity to remain in the sector. This study was undertaken to assess the performance and participation of young male and female entrepreneurs. This study made use of cross-section data from a survey conducted on 1019 young agricultural entrepreneurs in Cameroon. The data were analyzed using gross margin, student t-test, and logistic regression. Our study contributes to the literature by showing that young women agribusiness entrepreneurs are as competitive as their male counterparts and that the opportunities for young women in agriculture are good. Incentives such as single-digit interest rates and no collateral security should be directed to young women to receive more credit for purchasing agrochemicals and improved varieties of seed. Furthermore, a price control policy should be set up throughout the year to enable young women earn as their young men counterparts to enable them remain in production and marketing activities.

Globally the taro leaf blight (Phytophthora colocasiae) disease causes between 50 to 70% yield loss. Four taro landraces were planted in three agroecological zones of Cameroon; the Western Highlands (Bambui), Mono-Modal Humid Forest (Ekona), and the Bimodal Humid Forest (Nkolbisson) and evaluated for taro blight severity in four successive growing seasons in March and July, 2018 and 2019. Different concentrations of copper oxide (600 g)–Metalaxyl (120 g) fungicide were applied to control taro blight before and during plant growth. Results showed that, in all the field sites, the disease severity of Phytophthora colocasiae greatly decreased below 1.5 with varying concentrations of copper oxide (600 g)–Metalaxyl (120 g) fungicide applied at two-week intervals. The control field at Ekona recorded the highest taro blight severity of 7.8. There was no significant difference in taro blight severity (P≤0.05) between landraces treated with the different concentrations of copper oxide (600 g)–Metalaxyl (120 g) fungicide. Therefore, lower concentrations (0.33% and 0.27%) of copper oxide (600 g)–Metalaxyl (120 g) can be effectively used in the pre and post control of taro blight in the field. All the landraces in the screen house experiments were susceptible to P. colocasiae.   In all the zones, Landrace L2 (red petiole small leaves) was highly resistant to P. colocasiae and should be recommended to farmers for optimum taro production in the three agro-ecological zones and zones with similar characteristics.