Black pod disease on cacao (Theobroma cacao, L) in Ghana: Spread of Phytophthora megakarya and role of economic plants in the disease epidemiology

Akrofi, A. Y.; Amoako-Atta, Ishmael; Assuah, M.K.; Asare, Eric Kumi

doi:10.1016/j.cropro.2015.01.015

Cited by 56 publications

(44 citation statements)

References 15 publications

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“…Since the calculated value of t (=27.03) is greater than tabulated t (=1.649), H 0 may be further rejected, and it may be concluded that the yield of credit takers is significantly higher than that of non-credit takers. Ultimately, these results support the findings of [26,27,28] that rural credit takers have the edge to employ and pay farm labors, purchase fertilizers, insecticides, pesticides, and tri-cycles than non-credit takers, hence the potential for their yield difference.…”

Section: Effect Of Credit On Cocoa Yieldsupporting

confidence: 77%

Evaluating the Impact of Rural Finance on Cocoa Farmers Productivity: A Case Study of Bodi District in Ghana

Attipoe

Cao

Opoku-Kwanowaa

2020

AJAAR

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Background: Agricultural finance from rural and community banks play a major role in increasing both yield and income of rural farmers in agricultural-dependent economies. These finances are needed for purchasing raw materials, paying labor fees and buying farming equipment, etc. However, substantial evidence about their roles in improving farm productivity is lacking, especially in the cocoa sector in Ghana, where rural and community banks are the forerunners in advancing credit to cocoa farmers in Ghana’s deprived rural cocoa-growing communities. This research, therefore, seeks to determine the impact of rural and community banks’ credit on cocoa farmers' productivity in the Bodi District of Ghana. Methodology: Using random sampling method, a cross-sectional data of 350 cocoa farmers from 5 operational areas (Afere, Bodi, Amoaya, Kama and Suino) located in Bodi District in the Western region. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and logistic regression models. Statistical software (SPSS v20 and STATA v14) were used to analyze quantitative data on cocoa productivity. Results: The results revealed that cocoa farmers with access to credit experienced significant yield increase (p<0.05) with a mean of 359.71 kgha-1 as compared to 235.30 kgha-1 for non-credit takers. Further, only 34.3% of farmers accessed credit for farming. With Pseudo R2 value of 0.78, farm tenure system, fertilizer use, access to credit and access to extension services significantly influenced cocoa yield, while the age of cocoa farmer, age of farm trees and vulnerability of farm to natural disaster negatively affected cocoa yield. Tukey HSD results (p<0.00) indicate that rural banks credit allocations to non-agricultural activities such as trade and transport, and social loans had the highest percentage means which suggests that agriculture is treated less favorable in rural banks' credit portfolio. These findings give credence to the assertion that rural banks are deviating from their core mandate of supporting agriculture in Ghana. Conclusion: This study reaffirms the supporting roles played by rural and community banks in increasing cocoa yield in Ghana. However, this research recommends that, the Bank of Ghana should closely monitor the activities of these unit banks to reduce the instances of diverting all their funds to non-agricultural related activities.

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Section: Effect Of Credit On Cocoa Yieldsupporting

confidence: 77%

Evaluating the Impact of Rural Finance on Cocoa Farmers Productivity: A Case Study of Bodi District in Ghana

Attipoe

Cao

Opoku-Kwanowaa

2020

AJAAR

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“…This exercise also shows that, for several other parameters used in the model, scarce or no reliable data are available and thus experimentations should be undertaken to provide more reliable estimates for these parameters. Future mathematical studies include the analysis of the impulsive system (11)- (12) and take into account the spatial propagation of the spores, like in the work of Burie et al 38…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Modeling the temporal evolution of cocoa black pod rot disease caused by Phytophthora megakarya

Nembot

Soh

Hoopen

et al. 2018

Math Methods in App Sciences

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Black pod rot, caused by Phytophthora megakarya, is the main cause of cocoa losses in Cameroon. A few studies have focused on describing black pod epidemics in cocoa yet numerous questions remain. Here, an epidemiological model describing the temporal evolution of cocoa black pod, taking into account the development stages of pods, is developed and studied. In particular, the relative importance of primary and secondary infection in disease dynamics is investigated. Our theoretical study shows the existence of a disease free equilibrium and at least one endemic equilibrium. We highlight two threshold parameters, related to direct and indirect infections that summarize all possible dynamics of the system. Then, based on the literature, we define a periodic pod recruitment function and provide several numerical simulations to study the impact of phytosanitary pod removal on disease dynamics. We show that intense and regular sanitary harvest could lead to complete disease eradication.Our results also highlight the importance of the environmental spores reservoir in disease dynamics, such that future field experiments and observations should focus on it. KEYWORDS analysis, black pod rot, cocoa, disease, epidemiological model, simulations 8816

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“…The oomycete plant pathogens include numerous host-specific species (Lamour et al, 2009, Fawke et al, 2015. These filamentous microorganisms are some of the most destructive plant pathogens and remain persistent threats to both farmed and native plants (Akrofi et al, 2015, Enzenbacher et al, 2015, Hansen, 2015, Roy, 2015. For example, the Irish potato famine pathogen Phytophthora infestans, the causal agent of late blight, recurrently endangers global food security (Fisher et al, 2012, Fry et al, 2015.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Arabidopsis late blight: Infection of a nonhost plant byAlbugo laibachiienables full colonization byPhytophthora infestans

Belhaj

Cano

Prince

et al. 2015

Preprint

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The oomycete pathogen Phytophthora infestans causes potato late blight, and as a potato and tomato specialist pathogen, is seemingly poorly adapted to infect plants outside the Solanaceae. Here, we report the unexpected finding that P. infestans can infect Arabidopsis thaliana when another oomycete pathogen, Albugo laibachii, has colonized the host plant. The behaviour and speed of P. infestans infection in Arabidopsis pre-infected with A. laibachii resemble P. infestans infection of susceptible potato plants. Transcriptional profiling of P. infestans genes during infection revealed a significant overlap in the sets of secreted-protein genes that are induced in P. infestans upon colonisation of potato and susceptible Arabidopsis, suggesting major similarities in P. infestans gene expression dynamics on the two plant species. Furthermore, we found haustoria of A. laibachii and P. infestans within the same Arabidopsis cells. This Arabidopsis -A. laibachii -P. infestans tripartite interaction opens up various possibilities to dissect the molecular mechanisms of P. infestans infection and the processes occurring in co-infected Arabidopsis cells.

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Black pod disease on cacao (Theobroma cacao, L) in Ghana: Spread of Phytophthora megakarya and role of economic plants in the disease epidemiology

Cited by 56 publications

References 15 publications

Evaluating the Impact of Rural Finance on Cocoa Farmers Productivity: A Case Study of Bodi District in Ghana

Evaluating the Impact of Rural Finance on Cocoa Farmers Productivity: A Case Study of Bodi District in Ghana

Modeling the temporal evolution of cocoa black pod rot disease caused by Phytophthora megakarya

Arabidopsis late blight: Infection of a nonhost plant byAlbugo laibachiienables full colonization byPhytophthora infestans

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