Positive Yield Impact of Predacious Mites in Tea Production Areas of Kenya

Daniel L. Mutisya, E. M. El Banhaway and Evelyn C. R. Cheramgoi

Sustainable Agriculture Research, 2018, vol. 07, issue 3

Abstract: Tea agro ecosystems are least disturbed in comparison to other crop systems due to the plant canopy type. A survey on predacious mites’ abundance and impact on leaf yield in different tea production areas was carried out in 2014-2015 in Kenya. Major pest species were the red spider mite Oligonychus coffeae and the yellow thrip, Scirtothrips dorsalis. The red crevice mite, Brevipalpus phoenicis was found in few areas and in low numbers. Predacious mites of Phytoseiidae Family were highest at 5.8 and 6.8 mites per sample during dry and wet seasons, respectively. Phytoseiid abundance during the dry and wet seasons did not differ much within most sample sites. Presence of phytoseiid mites in combination with NPK-fertilizer-high altitude led to the strongest correlation to leaf yield than any other combination variable. High phytoseiid density- high altitude was third with positive impact to yield increase after high altitude combined with NPK-fertilizer. The findings here show contributory positive impact of phytoseiids in tea leaf yield in an agro eco-system.

Keywords: Crop; Production/Industries (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/301822/files/Paper%201.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ags:ccsesa:301822

DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.301822

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Sustainable Agriculture Research from Canadian Center of Science and Education
Bibliographic data for series maintained by AgEcon Search ().