Abstract
Comparative incidence of maize stem borers on GM and non-GM maize under two smallholder cropping systems in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa
Highlights
Chilo partellus and B. fusca are the main pests of maize in South Africa occurring either singly or in mixed populations (Van den Berg et al, 1991a; Ntiri et al, 2016)
Stem borer infestation levels Only B. fusca larvae were recovered from non-Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) maize plants under dryland conditions
With respect to maize plants under irrigation conditions, C. partellus constituted 74.9%, 75.0% and 95.4% of the larvae recovered from maize plants at the vegetative, flowering and post flowering growth stages respectively
Summary
Maize is one of the most important crops in subSaharan Africa. Historically, yields of the crop in Africa have been low compared to other maize producing regions. The efficacy of insecticides may be limited by the lack of proper timing of application and difficulty to reach the target pests inside the maize whorl (Eizaguirre et al, 2002; Slabbert and Van den Berg, 2009). In view of these challenges, the availability of genetically modified (GM) insect resistant maize varieties in South Africa was seen as a potentially important development that could provide smallholder farmers with practical and economical ways to minimize maize yield losses due to stem borer pests (Hellmich et al, 2008; Brookes and Barfoot, 2014). In South Africa, smallholder maize production takes place under dryland conditions (Hamann and Tuinder, 2012)
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