Agriculture and Horticulture

Biography

Biography: Aliyu Baworu Mustapha

Abstract

Species of the parasitic plant genus Dodder (Cuscuta spp. Cuscutaceae) are distributed worldwide. They are able to attack many plant species, including crops that are important to the people of Adamawa state. The host range of this weed is not entirely known yet. Such understanding is particularly important with respect to valuable crops grown in this area. Dodder extracts all its nutrients and water requirements from the host plant and shades the crop with its dense stem mass, thereby reducing crop yields. An experiment was carried out to determine the host range of Cuscuta campestris among different food crops, and the levels of damage it causes on each host. A pot experiment was conducted in a screen house of the Modibbo Adama University of Technology, Yola, Adamawa State, Nigeria. Nine different crops were used: cotton (Gossypium herbaceum. L), tomato (Lycopersicon lycopersicum L), pepper (Capsicum frutescens L), soybean (Glycine max L.), cowpea (Vigna unguiculata L. Walp), groundnut (Arachis hypogaea L.), sorghum (Sorghum bicolor L. Moench), maize (Zea mays L.) and rice (Oryza sativa L.). The treatments consisted of infestation and parasite-free conditions and were arranged in a completely randomized design (CRD) with four replications. Soybean, cowpea and groundnut had the highest Cuscuta campestris cover scores among the test crops, followed by tomato, pepper and cotton. Across all the infested crops biomass of infested plants was decreased compared with the control treatments with the exception of groundnut that recorded an increase. It can be concluded that soybean, cowpea, groundnut, tomato, pepper and cotton were susceptible to Cuscuta campestris. However, soybean, cowpea and tomato were more sensitive than groundnut, pepper and cotton. While, sorghum, maize and rice were are not sensitive to Cuscuta campestris.