Nature of Damage and Infestation of Dominant Foliage Herbivore of Soybean at Jimma-Iluababora, Ethiopia

Abstract

Leaf herbivore insects are among the most serious pests of soybean in Ethiopia. A survey was conducted on 90 farms in three main soybean growing districts in Jimma and Iluababora zones of Ethiopia. The objectives were to assess the socio demographic information of the farmers, to identify farmers' pest management practices and to study the importance and infestation of dominant leaf herbivore insect pests of soybean. The statistical analysis showed there is highly significant (p<0001) difference among studied districts in area coverage of soybean production and the majority of the farmers (81.1%) produce soybean below a hectare. Farmers were using different pest management methods to reduce damage caused by leaf phaga insect pests which concentrated on cultural method. Crop rotation was one of the main farming systems practiced by 80% at Tiroafeta and 96.7 and 100 % at Chewaka and Darimu districts. About 16.7% farmers of Tiroafeta were not practiced any management practices for pest management where as only 3.3 % of them practiced manually hand picking method at Chewaka. At Darimu district, all surveyed farmers did not get any access to crop protection training, but at Tiroafeta and Chewaka only 3.3 % of them got training opportunity provided by research center. The study revealed that the mean infestation level of green clover worm was 29.8 % at Tiroafeta district and 47 and 50.4 % at Chewaka and Darimu. The mean infestation of soybean semilooper was 25.3 % at Tiroafeta and 14.6 and 15.6 % at Chewaka and Darimu districts. The study showed that infestation of soybean leaf roller ranged from 2.5 to 8.2 % in Jimma zone and up to 74 % in Iluababora. Generally, these insect pests, needs due attention conducting regular scouting in unaddressed areas are very important for integrated pest management.