Abstract
Basal stem rot (BSR) disease caused by species of <i>Ganoderma { XE "Ganoderma"}</i>is of immense importance in oil palm production. Although much is known on the occurrence of this devastating disease, fundamental studies on the ecology in oil palm in plantations are rather limited. This study sought to determine the incidence, severity, distribution and spread pattern of BSR disease in oil palm plantations and relate disease parameters to climatic and edaphic factors. Surveys were carried out for two years on two–hectare plots in each of five oil palm estates of the Cameroon Development Corporation. Data for disease incidence and severity in each estate were recorded. Disease spread patterns were generated from Arc GIS version 9.3 using GIS coordinates of diseased plants. A correlation between disease parameters and soil physicochemical properties and multivariate analyses were done. Typical BSR disease symptoms were observed including unopened spear leaves, skirt–like appearance of leaves, basidiocarp formation, bole creation and death of the palm. The disease incidence ranged from 5.4% in 16-year old palms at Bota to 39.0% in palms of the same age in Mungo were about 50% of infected plants had extreme severe symptoms. Although principal component analysis showed that six soil properties account for variation in BSR disease incidence and severity, only fine sand content was positively correlated (P≤0.05) with disease incidence and severity, while C/N ratio was negatively correlated. This study has established the occurrence and spread of basal stem rot disease in five oil palm plantations in South Western Cameroon.
Highlights
Oil palm, Elaeis guineensis Jacq is an important oil crop in Cameroon where over 230,000 tons of crude palm oil is produced in about 190,000ha [1]
Where I= Incidence To assess the severity of the basal stem rot (BSR) disease, the disease severity index (DSI) was calculated using the method of Abdullah et al [18] : Both asymptomatic and symptomatic plants of various levels of severity were observed in the field
Considering the two years of observation, the average disease incidence was highest at Mungo in palms that are at about their peak production age
Summary
Elaeis guineensis Jacq is an important oil crop in Cameroon where over 230,000 tons of crude palm oil is produced in about 190,000ha [1]. Production was based on the Dura type palm whose production was low, but with the development of plantation agriculture, the more productive Tenera hybrid is widely cultivated. In Southeast Asia, basal stem rot (BSR) disease caused by species of Ganoderma is the most important disease of oil palm [1]. At least seven species of Ganoderma have been associated with BSR of oil palm in Malaysia, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea and Cameroon including G. boninense Pat., G. miniatocinctum Steyaert, G. chalceum (Cooke) Steyaert, G. tornatum (Pers.) Bers., G. zonatum Murill, G. xylonoides Steyaert, G. ryvardense Tonjock and Mih and G. lobenense [7, 5, 6, 8, 9]. BSR disease has been found to infect oil palms as young as 1 to 2 years of age, and is serious on palms aged 4 – 5 years
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