Penn State and partners bring new disease management tool to Nepal

Penn State and partners bring new disease management tool to Nepal

University Park, Pa. - Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences, as part of a consortium that includes Virginia Tech and Ohio State University, is collaborating with researchers from Nepal Agricultural Research Council (NARC) and Winrock International (WI) to develop a new grafting technology to combat diseases and pests in tomatoes and eggplant.

Tomatoes and eggplants are some of the most popular vegetables in the world. Because of their high demand, they also are popular among growers wanting to increase their income. New technologies such as plastic tunnels are helping to promote the off-season cultivation of tomatoes in countries across the globe. But various pests such as bacterial wilt, root knot nematodes, tomato fruit worm, and shoot and fruit borer of eggplant impair the production of these crops. These pests decrease yields and have been known to destroy entire crops.

Ed Rajotte, professor of entomology at Penn State, is part of a team collaborating with researchers in other countries to find solutions through the Integrated Pest Management Collaborative Research Support Program (IPM CRSP). The 15-year-old program, managed by Virginia Tech, is part of the United States Agency for International Development that supports research, education/training, and information exchange collaborative partnerships among US and developing country institutions. "It focuses on participatory and collaborative IPM research and education programs for horticultural crops and other food production systems," Rajott explained. "Integrated pest management (IPM) provides economical methods for managing pests such as insects, diseases, weeds and rodent using tactics that are economical, safe for people and nonthreatening to the environment."

In Nepal, bacterial wilt in tomato and eggplant is prevalent in the foothills and the valleys where the environment is warm and humid. In the absence of proper pest management methods, yield losses could approach up to 100 percent. Root knot nematode is another severe pest of tomatoes and eggplants. Many farmers in Nepal report losses of about 40 percent.

According to Rajotte, management of these diseases is very difficult and due to wide host range, location and variability amongst the pathogens. In addition, there are no commercial pesticides available for sustainable control and disease-resistant plants are not readily available.

"Grafting eggplant and tomato varieties onto resistant wild Solanum rootstocks has proven to be effective for controlling bacterial wilt and rootknot nematode in Bangladesh, one the IPM CRSP collaborating countries," Rajotte said. "One rootstock species, S. sisymbriifolium, was chosen because it adapts to local growing conditions, is resistant to the soil-borne diseases and grows quickly to provide rootstock seedlings faster. In addition, these grafting techniques can be done cheaply, so that grafted plants can be produced locally at the village level. In Bangladesh, grafted plants yielded significantly higher than non-grafted plants in farmers' fields."

The grafting technique developed in Bangladesh has been transferred and is being evaluated in Nepal. Local testing of any new technology is important because different ecological factors may necessitate adjustments in the technique. Grafting is especially important to Nepal because it's higher altitudes allow tomato production when it is too hot in India. A thriving tomato export industry has developed in Nepal, but it has been plagued by the soil born diseases. So far, the grafting technique is working well and the farmers are getting better yields. B.K. Gyawali, Nepal's IPM CRSP site coordinator, reports, "Fifteen farmers from six different districts of Nepal have been trained and are acting as nursery growers to supply local farmers with grafted plants. The availability of grafted plants will reduce pest control costs, improve yields and strengthen the supply chain for vegetables."

For more information about the project and IPM CRSP, visit http://www.oird.vt.edu/.

Established in 1963, Penn State's Department of Entomology provides undergraduate education, graduate student training and extension outreach education focusing on both domestic and international issues in insect science and pest management. Twenty faculty and more than 30 graduate students work on a variety of research topics providing insights into insect ecology, behavior and molecular biology as well as integrated pest management. The department is part of Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences. For more information about solving insect problems, descriptions of research and education programs or admission to the graduate program, visit Web site at http://www.ento.psu.edu/ or contact the department at (814) 865-1895.