Cultural control measures to diminish sorghum yield loss and parasite success under Striga hermonthica infestation

• Published in: Crop protection Vol. 24; no. 12; pp. 1023 - 1034
• Main Authors: van Ast, A., Bastiaans, L., Katile, S.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier Ltd 01.12.2005
• Subjects: Avoidance; crop yield; Deep planting; density; field experimentation; grain sorghum; maize; parasitic plants; plant reproduction; planting; relative leaf-area; Shallow_tillage; Sorghum bicolor; Striga hermonthica; tillage; time; Transplanting; weed control; weeds; Mali; Striga hermonthica; Sorghum bicolor; Transplanting; Shallow_tillage; Avoidance; Deep planting
• ISSN: 0261-2194; 1873-6904
• DOI: 10.1016/j.cropro.2005.02.008

Prospects of reducing Striga hermonthica (Del.) Benth. parasitism by means of cultural control measures were assessed. In a pot experiment, deep planting, the use of transplants and shallow soil-tillage, strongly delayed and reduced Striga infection of a sensitive and a tolerant sorghum cultivar. Application of all three measures combined resulted in a four-week delay in first emergence of the parasite, a reduced number of emerged Striga plants and a decimation of Striga dry weight. With the sensitive cultivar CK-60B a yield loss of 92% was reduced to 26%, whereas with the tolerant cultivar Tiemarifing application of the cultural control measures completely cancelled out a yield loss of 28%. Evaluation of these cultural measures under field conditions in Mali resulted in a strong reduction in Striga-infection level (85%). At the same time, the measures did not result in delayed first emergence of the parasite and had no beneficial effect on crop yield. It was argued that the presence of a natural Striga soil seed bank, with seeds throughout the tilth, might be an important reason for the reduced effectiveness of the proposed cultural control measures under field conditions.