Assessing the effectiveness of ethnomedicinal products on banana weevils using REML
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Date
2014Author
Bwogi, Godfrey
Mwine, Julius
Jumba, Francis
Murongo, Marius
Njoroge, Njeri Grace
Kabango, Freddie
Mutumba, Nakulima Kyeswa Pross
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This study investigated the effect of applying selected banana pest control treatments on management of banana
weevils. The data was collected on 283 banana plants picked at random; from 29 farmers selected using a snowball sampling
technique. Treatments used were ethnomedicinal products, synthetic chemicals, cultural practices in plantation planted from
suckers and those planted from tissue culture. Since data was spatially collected, it was analyzed using Restricted Maximum
likelihood Estimator (REML). REML was used to estimate the PCI after a square root transformation. The statistical analysis
indicated a significant difference between plantations where synthetic chemicals, clean planting materials (tissue culture),
cultural practices and ethnomedicinal products were used. There was also significant variation resulting from different varieties
grown. However, there was no significant variation resulting from the response of different varieties to the different treatments.
Results also indicated that garden where the cleaning materials had been used had the least percentage of banana weevil infection.
This study found out that there was no significant difference in damage caused by banana weevils in banana plantations where
synthetic chemicals and ethnomedicinal extracts were applied. Thus given the results, the study concluded that ethnomedicinal
products can be used by farmers to manage banana weevils. The study recommends that further studies should be carried out to
assess efficacy of the identified potential plants with pesticidal properties under controlled experiment.