Can I read Exploiting chemical ecology and species diversity: stem borer and striga control for maize and sorghum in Africa on EtoBox?

Exploiting chemical ecology and species diversity: stem borer and striga control for maize and sorghum in Africa by Zeyaur R Khan; John A Pickett; Johnnie van den Berg; Lester J Wadhams; Christine M Woodcock is a Agricultural and Biological Sciences article available to read on EtoBox.

What is Exploiting chemical ecology and species diversity: stem borer and striga control for maize and sorghum in Africa about?

Stem borers, comprising the larvae of a group of lepidopterous insects, and parasitic witchweeds, particularly Striga hermonthica and S asiatica, cause major yield losses in subsistence cereal production throughout sub-Saharan Africa. Studies are described that have led to the development of a `push-pull' strategy for minimising stem borer damage to maize and sorghum. This involved the selection of plant species that could be employed as trap crops to attract colonisation away from the cereal plants, or as intercrops to repel the pests. The two most successful trap crop plants were Napier grass, Pennisetum purpureum, and Sudan grass, Sorghum sudanensis. The intercrop giving maximum repellent effect was molasses grass, Melinis minuti ̄ora, but two legume species, silverleaf, Desmodium uncinatum, and greenleaf, D intortum, gave good results and had the added advantage of suppressing development of S hermonthica. In terms of stem borer control, the plant chemistry responsible involves release of attractant semiochemicals from the trap plants and repellent semiochemicals from the intercrops. With M minuti ̄ora, parasitism of stem borers was also increased by certain chemicals repellent

Who reads Exploiting chemical ecology and species diversity: stem borer and striga control for maize and sorghum in Africa?

Author

Zeyaur R Khan; John A Pickett; Johnnie van den Berg; Lester J Wadhams; Christine M Woodcock

Publisher

John Wiley and Sons; Wiley (John Wiley & Sons); John Wiley & Sons Inc.; Wiley (ISSN 1526-498X)

Published

2000

Language

EN

Field

Agricultural and Biological Sciences (Life Sciences)