Farmers’ Knowledge, Perception and Practices in Apple Pest Management and Climate Change in the Fes-Meknes Region, Morocco

Abstract

Apple production in the Fes-Meknes region of Morocco is highly affected by pests and adverse weather conditions. A survey of apple farmers’ knowledge, perceptions and practices (KPP) in pest management and climate change was conducted in spring 2018 in two major apple-producing provinces of the region. Each farmer reported three insect pests and two diseases on average affecting their orchards. Pest management was performed by a combination of cultural and chemical methods. All farmers used dormant chemical sprays. About 60% of the respondents adopted pest surveillance based on visual inspection and 41.9% chose their pesticides on the basis of the information received from pesticide sellers. An average of 20 treatments per year was applied in each orchard. Regression analysis showed that neither the age of apple trees nor the number of pesticide applications influenced yield. Adverse weather conditions affected all apple plantations and the most frequent problems perceived were frosts, hailstorms, hot winds and water shortage. Of the orchards reported, 51.3% were protected with anti-hail nets. In order to reduce the rate of pesticide applications, better information on integrated pest management is required. Introduction of organic farming is necessary as 40.5% of the farmers agreed to convert to this practice in the future provided that market facilitation is established.

Sustainable Management of the Red Palm Weevil: The Nexus between Farmers’ Adoption of Integrated Pest Management and Their Knowledge of Symptoms

“…Consequently, some management practices should be implemented by the government and farmers, including developing a protocol for visual inspection of RPW infestation; establishing a quick, reliable, cost-effective, and easily applicable early detection device or technique for RPW infestation; and conducting a risk assessment of the area using both visual observation and pheromone traps [25]. This result is aligned with other studies [20,30,53,54] that have reported a positive relationship between knowledge of symptoms and IPM adoption for various pests.…”

Knowledge and Attitude of Malaysian Fruit Growers on Integrated Pest Management (IPM)

“…Despite the reliance and high usage of synthetic pesticides, the respondents showed a poor understanding in the modes of action (MOA) of different pesticides ( As a result, the farmers were merely be switching pesticides with the same MOA of different trade names (Moinina et al, 2018). In addition, farmers with low literacy or without formal agriculture education may find the information of MOA difficult to understand, and often refer to advice from licensed pesticide dealers.…”

Apple Scab Disease Severity in the Sais Region of Morocco and its Sensitivity to Three Commercial Fungicides

“…In addition to protective fungicides, apple farmers in Morocco rely on three classes of systemic fungicides, namely, methyl benzimidazole carbamate (MBC) fungicides, demethylation inhibitors (DMIs) and the quinone-outside inhibitors (QoI). The three most widely used systemic fungicides that belong to these classes are thiophanatemethyl, difenoconazole and trifloxystrobin, respectively (Moinina et al, 2018). Precisely, we used the three aforementioned active ingredients.…”

“…Out of about twenty cultivars of apples grown in Morocco, 'Golden Delicious' occupies up to 50% of the surface area, followed by 'Starking Delicious' (14%) and about 5% of 'Gala' cultivar (MADRPM, 2014). Management of apple scab disease is expensive due to the high number of fungicide applications (12 to 20) (Oukabli, 2004;Moinina et al, 2018). In order to prevent the development of fungicide resistance in the pathogen population, a farmer needs to reduce fungicide sprays per season and alternate fungicides with different modes of action (MoA).…”