Eggplant Fruit and Shoot Borer (Leucinodes orbonalis)

Eggplant fruit and shoot borer (EFSB) is a damaging pest of eggplant. Its larvae feeds inside eggplant fruit, making the fruit unmarketable and unfit for human consumption. Entire crop can be lost from EFSB damage.EFSB feeds almost exclusively on eggplant. It can infest crops in 4 main ways. The most common source of infestation is EFSB moths which  fly in from neighboring eggplant fields that have already been damaged. Eggplant seedlings used for transplanting can sometimes be carrying eggs or tiny larvae, this is especially true if one uses slightly older seedlings that are raised near an EFSB damaged older crop or heaps of dried eggplant stubble. The issue of lack of crop rotation; (that is if the previous crop grown in the field was also eggplant), the EFSB pupae from the previous crop resting within the soil will become adults and infest the new eggplant crop. Anothe source of infestation is if old, uprooted eggplant plants are stored nearby, the pupae from underneath such plant debris can develop into adults and infest the eggplant crop.

Infestations usually begin when the eggplant plants start to flower. No control is needed before this time. Insecticides used before symptoms appear are wasteful and will kill predators, which are important natural enemies of EFSB.

         The first visible symptoms of pest activity are freshly wilted shoot tips. In crop that have not yet set fruit all larvae go to the tender shoots and feed inside these plant parts.

 

  




When a larva becomes mature, it tunnels out of the fruit at night and 

descends to the soil for pupation. Exit holes are clearly visible in fruits 

but may not be obvious in shoots because of the hairiness of shoot.

       








         
Once insect infestation begins, it can continue until the final harvest. In Seychelles, EFSB has been sighted on Praslin, La Digue and certain areas of Mahe. Effort to keep the population under control is under way but the participation and corporation of everybody is of great importance.

The ideal way to control EFSB 

For the time being the following management practices are being encouraged:- 

Farm Hygiene. Keep the farm free from Debris. 

Use plastic as a source of mulching in eggplant to prevent the fully grown larvae to pupate 

Remove and destroy the affected tender shoots, fallen fruits and fruits with  bore holes 

Use of pheromone lures to trap male moths 

Reducing the use of insecticides in order to permit the natural enemies of EFSB to proliferate  

Avoid continuous cropping of eggplant crop 

Avoid using alternate host in crop rotation

(Since moths can fly from one field to another, it is important that all farmers in a community work together to keep EFSB under control.)

 Sources

(HOW TO CONTROL EGGPLANT FRUIT AND SHOOT BORER,  AVRDC THE WORLD VEGETABLE CENTRE  P.O. Box 42, Shanhua, Taiwan 741 Tel: ++886-6-583-7801 Fax: ++886-6-583-0009Website: www.avrdc.org )


(PRESENTATION  Eggplant Fruit and Shoot Borer, JULY 2011 Barry Daniel Nourice   TNAU)

(Presentation on  Eggplant fruit ans shoot borer trial using Pheromone traps)

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On-Farm Trials Workshop

Courtesy of Seychelles Nation

On Thursday 10^th March 2011, the Agricultural Extension Services Section and the Crop Research and Development Section of the Seychelles Agricultural Agency (SAA) jointly organised a workshop for farmers at the Anse Royale Community Centre in which the preliminary results of on-farm trials carried out in 2010 were presented and discussed. Also present were Minister Peter Sinon, Mr. Antoine Marie Moustache, the Chief Executive Officer of the SAA, Mr. Gilbert Port-Louis, the Principal Officer of the Agricultural Extension Services Section, Mr. Georgie Belmont, the Head of the Seychelles Agricultural Horticultural Training Centre and the farmers’ association representatives. The event was covered by the Seychelles Broadcasting Corporation and the Seychelles’ Nation.

 

The presentations were given by officers from the Research and Development, and the Agricultural Extension Services Sections.

Topics covered included:

-Evaluation of layer and broiler chicken manure and cattle manure in Chinese cabbage in red soil under open field condition (Val D’endore ‘West’ Mahe);

              Extension, Research & Farmers collaboration

Transplanting on the farmers field

- Evaluation of four different modes of bio-pesticides for the control of leaf miner in tomato (Port-Glaud ‘North West’ Mahe);

- Evaluation of four different types of bio-pesticides for the control of leaf miner in Chinese cabbage (Anse Royale ‘South’ Mahe);

-Evaluation of different rates of broiler chicken manure in banana on red soil (Barbarons ‘West’ Mahe);

-Evaluation of Lucin-lure and Wota to control eggplant shoot and fruit borer under open field condition (Grand-Anse, Praslin & La Digue);

Issues/ topics of concern except for the pheromone trap (Lucin-Lure) trial were identified during a series of workshops carried out by the Agricultural Extension Services Section’s staff with small groups of farmers to get them to identify and prioritise the problems they were encountering on their farms.  Following that, the Agricultural Extension Services Section and the Research and Development Section’s personnel got together and transformed the farmers’ problems into these above mentioned on-farm research trials.

Farmers prioritizing their needs

 It is good to note, that the idea of grouping the farmers to identify and prioritise their needs is in response to their demands during the Stakeholders Information Needs Assessment during which they wanted their actual problems be researched into and under the conditions and environment in which the farmers themselves are working under, hence the on-farm research.

Meetings were organised during which Agricultural Extension Services Section and Research and Development Section’s officers and farmers discussed the protocols for the trials and agreed on everyone’s responsibilities while the trials were in progress.

Farmers involvement from the start

At different development stages of the trials, farmers themselves were brought on site to see the progress and at the same time media were invited for wider coverage, hence whoever could not make it to the field visit, could be kept informed.

Farmers visiting on  field trial

The results of trials carried out were communicated through the workshop. This was also a request by the stakeholders themselves who wanted the results to be given in meetings by research and agricultural extension or on television or radio.

Presentation of trial results

The meeting has been a fruitful one and was also well appreciated by the stakeholders present. Minister Peter Sinon stressed on the importance of such workshop/ meeting which promotes interaction between research personnel and the farmers which also encourages the farmers to as much as possible to apply the research findings in their daily production undertakings on the farm.

Mr. Moustache addressing workshop participants 

On the other hand, Mr. Moustache urged the farmers to continue the collaboration especially to offer space on their land and their time for the on-farm trials. He also supported the proposal of the Principal Officer of the Agricultural Extension Services Section that the event becomes an annual one.

A farmer contributes in the discussion

The farmers themselves showed lots of interests and participated actively in the discussions. It was good to note, that the farmers on whose farms the trials were carried out, were eager to promote the most effective treatment used. Some also proposed amendments to the protocols to achieve better results as well as lay out more plots on their land. The meeting also served as a platform on which the farmers started to exchange indigenous knowledge among themselves as well as on better ways to get good yields all year round.

For a first, the meeting has been a successful one. It was a small step towards responding to the real need of the stakeholders, with the aim of achieving a higher national food security.

Rendez-vous is for March 2012, when research trials being carried out at the research station will also be presented along with the final results.

Contributed by:

Gilbert Port-Louis (Principal Officer Extension)

Sandra Sinon (Research Assistant, Research & Development)