Farmers’ Perception on Pestilence and Management of Chinese Citrus Fly, Bactrocera minax (Enderlein) (Diptera: Tephritidae) in Citrus Orchards of Nepal

Abstract

This study, during period of 2018 and 2019, was conducted with an objective of assessing the farmers’ perspective on the pestilence of B. minax on their citrus orchards and following thereby its pest management measures in the selected eight citrus growing districts of Nepal. Respondent citrus growers were male dominated (75.8%) where Brahmin and Chhetri castes (54.3%) were dominantly involved in the citrus cultivation in the survey districts. Only 25.7% respondent citrus growers had above school level education. The highest reported land holding area, 2.35 ha, was in Sankhuwasabha district followed by Dhankuta (1.72 ha) and Syanjya (1.67 ha). According to the respondents, an average of 234.12 mandarin trees in Syanjya, 159.60 sweet orange trees in Sindhuli, 9.68 lemon trees in Sindhuli, and 11.83 lime trees in Gulmi were calculated maximum acreage of different citrus fruit trees by the each citrus grower. Among the cultivated Citrus spp., lemon fruit found to be extremely vulnerable to Chinese citrus fly infestation. Chinese citrus fly's maggot infestation peak in fruits in orchards was observed in October in the citrus crop cycle. Twenty citrus dominated districts in Nepal found to be regularly invaded of Chinese citrus fly in citrus particularly in lemon, sweet orange and mandarin.

Mandarin Yield Loss and Pupal Density Assessment of Chinese Fruit Fly at Citrus Pockets of Gandaki Province, Nepal

“…The loss in this study was highest in Syangja (20.94%) and the Province average was 16.63%, which was lower as compared to up to 100% loss in sweet orange as reported by (Adhikari et al, 2020). About 50-60% loss was reported by NCRP ( 2006) in eastern hill districts; Dhankuta, Bhojpur and Khotang.…”

“…Its territory is assumed to extend from East to West of Nepal and the resulting fruit damage has exerted a huge economic loss to the growers. That reported around 15% mandarin yield losses in eastern hill by this pest (Adhikari et al, 2020). As a reports the possibility of causing up to 97% yield loss of sweet orange in Eastern hill by the time of harvesting Sharma et al (2015).…”

“…Female CFFs start to oviposit eggs into small unripe fruit from mid-June to mid-July (Wang and Luo, 1995;Dorji et al, 2006) leaving the oviposition point covered with waxy oviposition marking substance, which transform transparent to translucent and to yellowish gradually within 1-3 days, bulges out and cracks (Wang and Zhang, 1993). However, in Nepal, female oviposit during March to July (Adhikari et al, 2020). Usually two months are required for the eggs to hatch which is much longer than other species in the Bactrocera genus (Xia et al, 2018).…”

Farmer’s perception on Chinese citrus fruit fly (CFFs) and its management in Solukhumbu and Sindhuli district of Nepal

“…The survey shows that the percentage of involvement of male farmers in production, management, and handling was higher as compared to females and could make a decision in the house in both locations, which indicates the unequal involvement of the gender. The dominant male respondent in citrus production was also recorded in Adhikari et al (2022a). Further, a comparable situation of male dominance in outhouse jobs has been noted in Afghanistan (Tavva and Martini, 2014).…”

Farmer's Survey and Monitoring of Fruit Flies (Diptera: Tephritidae) in Citrus Orchards of Ramechhap District, Nepal

“…These pests not only causes yield losses through fruit droppings, but also limit the citrus export trade in Nepal due to phytosanitary restrictions. A total of 27 species of fruit flies has been recorded in Nepal (Adhikari et al, 2022a). The most common tree fruit species are Bactrocera dorsalis (Hendel) and B. zonata (Saunders), and fruit fly species of cucurbits are Zeugodacus tau (Walker) and Z. cucurbitae (Coquillett) (Doorenweerd et al, 2018;Leblanc et al, 2019).…”