Abstract
Cowpea, Vigna unguiculata (L.) Walp., is the most cultivated and consumed legume in West Africa and is typically attacked by several insect pests, including Maruca vitrata, leading to reduced yields. This study assessed under laboratory conditions the efficacy of neem oil and M. vitrata multi-nucleopolyhedrovirus (MaviMNPV) against M. vitrata eggs as alternatives to second generation pesticides. Hatching and mortality rates after biopesticide application of neem oil, MaviMNPV, and the two in combination reduced the egg viability by 89%, 84% and 91%, respectively. Moreover, the combination of MaviMNPV and neem oil induced 100% mortality among the hatched larvae, compared to 60% and 100% alone, respectively. Implications for using these biopesticides are discussed within an integrated pest management (IPM) context.
Highlights
Cowpea, Vigna unguiculata L. (Walp.) is the most important edible grain legume in West Africa
When eggs were washed with water either 1 or 12 h after being soaked in the neem solution, the biopesticide remained effective and significantly reduced the egg viability, with higher neem concentrations leading to higher egg mortality rate (Table 1)
When eggs were washed with water either 1 or 12 h after being soaked in the combined MaviMNPV-neem solution, the biopesticide remained effective (Table 5)
Summary
Vigna unguiculata L. (Walp.) is the most important edible grain legume in West Africa. The typical cowpea yield in the field is often lowered by several insect pests, including the legume pod borer Maruca vitrata, whose populations attain damaging levels in southern Burkina Faso where the rainfall is between 900 and 1200 mm (Ba et al 2009). Sourokou 1989) but they are not widely applied because of the associated high cost, the lack of good quality products, and the challenges to safe-use practices especially for smallholder lowliterate farmers (Pimentel et al 1992; Tan et al 1996) it becomes imperative to provide cowpea farmers with alternative control methods, as part of an integrated pest management (IPM) system (Tamò et al 2003). A commercialized standardized neem oil is available in Benin and has been successfully tested against M. vitrata in Benin and Burkina Faso (Drabo 2014; Ouédraogo 2013; Sokame et al 2015)
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