Effectiveness of Botanical Pesticides from Wastes of Virginia Tobacco Stems in Reducing Populations of Leaf-Sucking Pest and Occurrence of Virus Disease Symptoms on Potato Plants

Abstract

The potato plant (Solanum tuberosum L.) is a tuber-producing plant which is rich in carbohydrates, protein and minerals, and can be used as a staple food, and potatoes have great potential as one of the horticultural crops that can support world food diversification. One of the constraining factors in increasing potato productivity is leaf-sucking pests including aphids (Aphids spp.,), whitefly (Bemisia tabaci), and thrips (Thrips Palmi Karny), which besides damaging plants directly, can act as vectors for viruses that cause potato plant diseases such as Potato virus Y (PVY) and Potato leaf roll virus (PLRV). These two viruses can cause quite severe damage and through the health of the seeds they produce, they can reduce potato productivity by up to 70-80%. This study aims to determine the effect of several concentrations of botanical pesticides from Virginia tobacco stem waste on the emergence of viral disease symptoms in potato plants. The experiment was carried out in Sembalun Bumbung Village, East Lombok Regency (Indonesia), which was arranged using a Randomized Block Design consisting of 6 treatments namely control, abamectin, and Virginia tobacco stem waste botanical pesticides with concentrations of 2, 4, 6 and 8 ml/L. The results showed that the botanical pesticides from Virginia tobacco stem waste were effective in reducing leaf-sucking pest populations and suppressing the intensity of leaf-sucking pest attacks and were able to suppress the emergence of viral disease symptoms, with a concentration of 8 ml/L botanical pesticides more effective than other treatments in controlling populations. and attacks by potato leaf-sucking pests suspected as virus vectors.