Occurrence of parasitic nematodes infecting cucumber in Kwara State
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Date
2024
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Published by Nnamdi Azikwe University
Abstract
Management of nematodes required identification and quantification of the
plant parasitic nematode species causing infection so as to develop control
strategies. The experiment was carried out to determine the abundance of
plant parasitic nematodes associated with cucumber in Kwara State. Two
hundred and fifty grams (250g) of rhizospheric soil were collected from 18
cm depth, and ten grams of root samples were collected from each of 20
farms across the four Agricultural Development Programme (ADP)
delineated agricultural zones of Kwara State following the zigzag sampling
technique for nematode extraction and identification. Nematodes were
extracted using the Baermann technique and were counted using the
standard nematode counting dish; also, soil samples collected from each
zone were also exposed to soil tests. Data were analyzed using descriptive
statistics. Ten plant parasitic nematode genera were identified, and the most
prevalent was Meloidogyne spp. with a 7143.00/250 ml mean population
density, followed by Pratylenchus spp, while the least was Rotylenchus
spp. having a mean population density of 48.00/250 ml suspension. The
study concluded that root-knot nematodes (Meloidogyne species) were the
most abundant in cucumber-growing fields of Kwara State. Therefore,
subsequent build-up of these plant-parasitic nematodes should be
periodically monitored by plant nematologists because cucumbers are good
hosts of plant-parasitic nematodes, and early observation of population
increase will be checked before it gets out of hand.
KEYWORDS: Abundance, Coordinates, Delineated, Prevalent, Survey