Assessment of farmer’s awareness on occurrence, prevalence and management of sisal bole rot disease in Muheza district
Department of Crop Science and Horticulture, Sokoine University of Agriculture, P.O. Box 3005, Chuo Kikuu, Morogoro, Tanzania.
Research Article
International Journal of Scientific Research Updates, 2022, 04(01), 223–235.
Article DOI: 10.53430/ijsru.2022.4.1.0118
Publication history:
Received on 20 July 2022; revised on 25 August 2022; accepted on 27 August 2022
Abstract:
In Tanzania, sisal is a good source of income and employment to many rural residents whose livelihoods depend on agriculture. For many years, Tanzania has been promoting sisal industry especially small scale farmers’ participation in the sisal industry. One of the important disease threatening sisal production is bole rot, a disease that is associated with fungus of Aspergillus species. This study aimed to determine farmer’s level of awareness regarding occurrence, prevalence and management of bole rot disease. Interview administrated questionnaire was employed to obtain both qualitative and quantitative data from 71 small scale farmers and three sisal estates from the three major sisal growing wards in different agro-ecologies of Muheza district. Data was collected using Open Data Kit (ODK) Collect v2021.2.3 tool and inputted using Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS 20) software, transformed using Arcsine and analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. Pearson product moment correlation was used to find the relationship between selected demographic variables, production practices and farmers level of awareness on bole rot disease. The study revealed that, majority of the sisal farmers had moderate level of awareness regarding sisal bole rot disease. All the selected demographic variables and many production variables were found to have significant relationship with farmer’s level of awareness on bole rot disease. The results also revealed that majority of the sisal farmers are relying on their fellow sisal farmer’s and extension officers to obtain information on sisal production. Campaigns are needed to improve farmers’ awareness on sisal bole rot disease through public awareness and capacity building to extension officers.
Keywords:
Agave sisalana; Aspergillus; Awareness; Bole rot; Muheza; Sisal
Full text article in PDF:
Copyright information:
Copyright © 2022 Author(s) retain the copyright of this article. This article is published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Liscense 4.0