The effect of poultry manure and spacing on infestation of Helicoverpa armiger's on Tomatoes had been identified.

1. TITLE
EFFECT OF POULTRY MANURE AND PLANT SPACING ON INFESTATION OF FRUIT BORER
(Helicoverpa armigera Hub.) ON TOMATO (Solanum lycopersicum L.) GROWN IN SAMARAU, ZARIA,
KADUNA STATE, NIGERIA.
Adamu, Z.,1 Onwunali, M.R.O.,2 Ahmed, A.,3 and Rabiu .Y4
1*Department of Crop Protection, Faculty of Agriculture, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria.
*Corresponding author Email: zaidadam20s@gmail.com
PAPER PRESENTED IN THE 47TH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF NIGERIA SOCIETY FOR PLANT
PROTECTION,
THEME: PLANT PROTECTION, HUMAN SECURITYAND NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT AT FEDERAL
UNIVERSITY OF AGRICULTURE (FUNAAB), ABEOKUTA, OGUN STATE, 13TH - 17TH MARCH, 2022.

2. ABSTRACT
• An investigation was conducted to determine the effect of poultry manure and plant spacing on the
infestation of Helicoverpa armigera in the Institute for Agricultural Research farm (IAR), Samaru,
Zaria during the dry season farming of 2019. The experimental treatments consisted of four levels
of plant spacings (15cm, 30cm, 45cm and 60cm) and four levels of Poultry manure (0 tha-1, 4 tha-1,
8 tha-1 and 12 tha-1).The treatments were laid out in a randomized complete block design and
replicated thrice. Data was subjected to ANOVA and means separated with LSD at 5% level of
probability. Combined analysis of variance revealed significant differences in fruit number and
damage using poultry manure. However, high yield per stand (5.13) and damage (2.23) was
observed at 8 tha-1. On plant spacing, 45cm intra-spacing gave relatively high number of fruit (4.93)
and damage (2.08) compared to other spaces even though there was no significant differences
among the means. This implied that, such levels of poultry manure increased both fruit number
and fruit damage in tomato grown in Samaru, Zaria. Hence other integrated measures such as
application of novel insecticides, inter-cropping and date of planting inter-alia may be incorporated
to reduce damage due to tomato fruit borer induced by H.armigera for optimum yield in tomato
production.
• Key word: Tomato, Fruit borer, Poultry manure, plant spacing

3. INTRODUCTION
• Tomato (Solanum Lycopersicum L.) is the second most important vegetable crop grown in the world after potato
(Degri and Sani, 2015).
• Nigeria is one of the largest consumers of vegetables in sub-Saharan Africa with about 22 kg per capita (Ogundari
and Agrifola, 2013). consumption in Nigeria stands at 2.3 million tonnes of tomato annually (GEMS, 2019).
• The crop is more susceptible to pest attack more than other vegetable crops, mainly because of its tenderness and
softness. Tomato is devastated by an array of pests, however, the major damage is caused by the Tomato Fruit
Borer (Sajjad, 2011).
• Tomato Fruit Borer (TFB) Helicoverpa armigera (Hubner) (Lepidoptera: Nuctudea) is one of the serious pest of
tomato. The insect is polyphagy, with high mobility, high fecundity and facultative diapauses. The newly hatched
larvae bores into the fruit and feed inside, thereby making fruit unfit for human consumption and marketing
(Amin, Chakma, Alam, Hussain and Ge, 2016).
• Severe infection causes necrosis to the leaf chlorophillus tissue, suppresses tomato flower to bloom (Jallow, 2001).
The insect causes widespread economic damage to tomato farms with severe yield loss of up to 30 – 40 %.
Infestation range of H. armigera was up to 46. 85 % in Bangaledesh and 35 % in India (Chakraborthy, Santosh and
Chakravathy, 2009).
• Chemical control is the primary management approach used for the control of insect pest in tomato crop.
However, indiscriminate and excessive use of insecticides causes resistance to insects, pest resurgence,
environmental contamination, health hazard and in some cases, promote the build- up of toxic residues in fruits.
Since the fruits are eaten raw in salads, the health and environmental hazards associated with insecticides should
be avoided (Degri and Mai Lafiya, 2013).
• The current interest in integrated pest control and organic agriculture therefore need alternative control measures
that are effective, affordable, adoptable and safe to users and consumers. The use of cultural method such as
spacing and poultry manure is one of such alternatives to insecticides.
• The study aimed at examining the effect of poultry manure and plant spacing on incidence of Tomato Fruit Borer
as means of IPM for sustainable production.

4. Materials and Methods
• The experiment was conducted in Institute for Agricultural Research, Ahmadu
Bello University Zaria farm in 2019.
• Treatments comprised of four plant spaces (15cm, 30cm, 45cm and 60cm) and
poultry manure (at rates of 0 tha-1, 4 tha-1, 8 tha-1 and 12 tha-1 )respectively.
• The experiment was laid out in randomized complete block design replicated three
times, giving a total of 96 plots in a plot size of 27m2.
• UC82B variety of tomato was used . It was raised in nursery for three weeks and
therefore, transplanted to the field at four stand spacing followed by irrigation
(two times a week).
• Before flowering, ten stands were randomly selected and tagged in each plot for
data collection on number of fruits and damage. On fruit set, stands were
observed weekly for presence of H. armigera and number of fruits.
• Data on fruit number and damage were recorded weekly for five weeks by
counting the number of healthy fruits and fruits with tunnel or holes.
• Data were subjected to Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) using the Gen Stat software
package 14th Edition. Means were separated using LSD test at 5 % level of
probability.

5. Result
• Table 1: Combined analysis of variance (ANOVA) for impact of Poultry manure and plant spacing
on tomato fruit number and number of damaged fruits in Samaru Zaria, 2019.
•
• Source of variation d.f. S.S M.S F val. F pr.
• Fruit number:
• Fertilizer 3 437.94 145.98 14.28 <.001
• Plant spacing 3 31.55 10.52 1.03 0.379
• Fertilizer*Plant spacing 9 170.51 18.95 1.85 0.054
• Residual 4781 48860.85 10.22
• Total 4797 50978.17
• Fruit Damaged:
• Fertilizer Rates 3 124.546 41.515 11.33 <.001
• Planting space 3 7.454 2.485 0.68 0.566
• Fertilizer* Planting space 45.835 5.093 1.39 0.187
• Residual 4778 17513.332 3.665
• Total 4794 17820.873
• Statistical significant differences = p ≤ 0.05, DF= Degree of freedom, SS=Sum of square, MS= Mean square,
FV=Significance

6. RESULT CONTD.
Fertiliz
er
Rates(K
g/ha)
Number
of
fruits/st
and
Planting
space(cm
)
Number of fruits
/stand
0 4.32b 15 4.81a
4 4.85a 30 4.81a
8 5.13a 45 4.93a
12 4.95a 60 4.70a
Table. 2: Mean effect of poultry manure rates and plant spacing on tomato fruit number in Samaru Zaria 2019.
Means followed by the same letter in the same column are not significantly different according to LSD (P≤0.05). SED= Standard
error of differences, LSD =Least significant differences.

7. RESULT CONTD.
Fertilizer Rates
(Kg/ha)
Damaged
fruits/stand
Planting space
(cm)
Damaged
fruits/stand
0 1.78c 15 2.04a
4 2.01b 30 1.98a
8 2.23a 45 2.08a
12 2.07b 60 1.99a
Mean 2.02 2.02
SED±
LSD (p≤0.05)
0.08
0.15
0.08
0.15
Table 3: Mean effect of poultry manure and plant spacing on tomato fruit damage by H.
armigera in Samaru Zaria 2019
Means followed by the same letter in the same column are not significantly different
according to LSD (P≤0.05). SED= Standard error of differences, LSD =Least significant
differences.

8. DISCUSSION
• The investigation evidently proved that poultry manure increased
number of fruits and damage at 8 tha-1 and showed that spacing
had no influence on yield performance and damage due to TFB
induced by H. armigera.
• Karim, (2009) reported that crop fertilization has effect on
susceptibility of plant to insect pest attack.
• Saliou et al., 2010 reported 24 % reduction of loss due to H.
armigera through application of organic manure.
• Wegayehu et al., 2013, also noted a positive effect of insect on
closely spaced vegetable crops. Such findings were not in
agreement with the present study where spacing did not show any
significant effect on H. armigera infestation. This may be as a result
of the differences in location, variety used, date of planting,
composition of organic matter used and soil type among others.
•

9. CONCLUSION
• Poultry manure and plant spacing may be
incorporated into IPM approach for production of
tomato and management of TFB.
• There may be a need to incorporate other IPM
measures such as application of novel
insecticides, intercropping and date of planting
among others for sustainable management.
•

10. REFERENCES
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