| dc.description.abstract |
Fungal diseases are a major constraint for the intensification of citrus production in Benin. The aim of this study was to identify the main citrus fungal diseases and to assess their distribution, prevalence, and severity). A total of 315 orchards were surveyed in the four agro-ecological zones (AEZ V, VI, VII, and VIII) where citrus is produced in Benin. During the surveys, samples of diseased fruits were collected for isolation in the laboratory. The results revealed four main fungal diseases including black spot caused by Phyllosticta sp., anthracnose caused by Colletotrichum sp., brown rot disease caused by Curvularia sp., and fruit rot caused by Fusarium sp. Among these diseases, black spot is the most distributed with 76.69% infected plants as compared to anthracnose, brown rot disease and fruit rot which infected 32.4%, 6.3% and 1.9% of plants respectively. The diseases severity was 2.88, 1.46, 1.08 and 0.60 for black spot, anthracnose, brown rot and fruit rot respectively. Of the three cultivated varieties, Pineapple and Valencia were susceptible to the four diseases while the variety Tangelo was less susceptible. The highest severity (3.51) was recorded in the AEZ VI and the lowest (0.81) in the AEZ VII. This study showed that citrus tree was susceptible to several diseases in Benin with black spot disease caused by Phyllosticta sp., as the most important. Any effort to increase qualitatively and quantitatively citrus productivity should be based on sustainable management of diseases |
en_US |