Abstract
Sweet potato is one of the most important staple food crops consumed in Kenya and throughout Africa but yields are greatly reduced by plant parasitic nematodes (PPN). The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of PPN in Kenyan sweet potato fields and their relationship with soil and climatic variables. Soil samples were collected from sweet potato fields in Busia, Teso, Kisii, Embu and Makueni counties. Thirteen nematode genera were identified across the five counties with Meloidogyne, Pratylenchus and Rotylenchus being the most prevalent. There was a significant (P <0.05) relationship between PPN abundance and sodium, calcium and iron. Canonical correspondence analysis of climatic variables revealed that the relationship between rainfall and nematode genera was significant (P <0.05) while maximum and minimum temperatures were not significant. This description of PPN assemblages associated with sweet potato in Kenya and their relationship with environmental variables provides a starting point from which appropriate nematode management strategies can be implemented.
Highlights
Plant parasitic nematodes (PPN) cause substantial yield losses of agricultural crops (Strange and Scott 2005) with a resultant global cost of > $120 billion p.a. (Chitwood 2011)
Plant parasitic nematodes belonging to the orders Tylenchida and Dorylaimida were identified in Kenyan sweet potato growing regions
Economic losses caused by plant parasitic nematodes (PPN) associated with sweet potato may increase due to ineffective management and increased damage resulting from their interaction with fungal, bacterial and viral pathogens (Barker et al 1994)
Summary
Plant parasitic nematodes (PPN) cause substantial yield losses of agricultural crops (Strange and Scott 2005) with a resultant global cost of > $120 billion p.a. (Chitwood 2011). Plant parasitic nematodes (PPN) cause substantial yield losses of agricultural crops (Strange and Scott 2005) with a resultant global cost of > $120 billion p.a. The presence of PPN in sweet potato growing AEZ in Kenya may be an important production constraint and the situation may deteriorate due to an increase in nematode abundance and a shift in distribution as a result of changes in temperature and moisture. Population trends of PPN and the relationship between nematodes and plants are affected by environmental conditions (Griffin et al 1996). At both global and continental scales, nematode community structure is influenced by temperature and rainfall (Bakonyi et al 2007; Nielsen et al 2014). The objective of this study was to determine the current environmental drivers and distribution of parasitic nematodes associated with sweet potato in Busia, Teso, Kisii, Embu and Makueni counties in Kenya
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