Chrispo Makheti Mutebi; Vincent Moranga
Abstract
The present study was done to determine the effect of different soil fertilities on cowpea mosaic virus disease incidence. The fertilities were; 50 kg/ha Diammonium phosphate (18.46.0), 50 kg/ha Mavuno (10.26.10) that is a mineral fertilizer that has been extensively utilized in western Kenya, ...
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The present study was done to determine the effect of different soil fertilities on cowpea mosaic virus disease incidence. The fertilities were; 50 kg/ha Diammonium phosphate (18.46.0), 50 kg/ha Mavuno (10.26.10) that is a mineral fertilizer that has been extensively utilized in western Kenya, 3 tons/ha farmyard manure (FYM), FYM/Mavuno combination with half rate of the latter at 25 kg/ha, FYM/DAP combination with half rate of the latter at 25 kg/ha and unfertilized control, all applied at planting time. Certified cowpea seed of Kenkunde variety was planted using the different fertilizers in a randomized complete block design (RCBD). Percent cowpea mosaic disease incidence (DI) data was collected and analyzed through one-way ANOVA. The results of cowpea mosaic DI shown as a descriptive statistics collected from the six fertilizer treatments indicated that FYM/DAP combination had the smallest mean for DI (M = 12.55), while DAP alone had the highest DI mean (M = 33.97). Associations among groups in the ANOVA table showed that the fertilizer effects were significant (p < .005). Fisher’s LSD post-hoc tests at 5% level of confidence was used to evaluate the nature of the differences in mean DI. It was observed that 92% of the variance in DI was accounted for the type of fertilizer treatment applied. In conclusion, application of DAP combined with FYM at 25 kg/ha and 1.5 tons/ha can be helpful in lowering the cowpea mosaic virus infection in the region where this study was carried out, though these could be used with knowledge of soil reaction.Abbreviations: ANOVA, Analysis of variance; DAP, Diammonium phosphate; DI, Disease incidence; FYM, Farmyard manure; LSD, Least significant difference; KALRO, Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organization; NRF, National Research Fund; RCBD, Randomized complete block design; SPSS, Statistical package for social sciences