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Effectiveness of agroecological practices in controlling Ralstonia solanacearum wilt on solanaceous crops: a meta"=analysis

¹University of Abomey-Calavi, Plant Genetic Resources and Crop Protection, Benin
²University of Louvain, Earth and Life Institute, Belgium
³National Inst. of Agronomic Research of Benin (INRAB), Plant Pathology and Plant Protection, Benin
⁴University of Abomey-Calavi, Plant Breeding and Genetics, Benin

Abstract

Bacterial wilt caused by Ralstonia solanacearum is one of most important and devastating diseases in solanaceous crop production. Various agroecological practices have been widely promoted in order to control this vascular bacterium. But how effective are these practices? A quantitative review was therefore conducted based on all publications which report agroecological bacterial wilt management practices under on-station or on-farm conditions in Scopus, Web of Knowledge and Google scholar electronic library without geographical restriction. After applying inclusion and exclusion criteria, 48 papers were retained, leading to 670 observations. The effectiveness of agroecological bacterial wilt management practices was evaluated through bacterial wilt incidence and crop yield, with a control treatment as reference. Effect size was calculated as the natural logarithm of the response ratio, and confidence intervals were determined by bootstrapping using the OpenMee software. Funnel plot and fill and trim analysis confirmed the absence of publication bias. Varietal control (n=420), integrated pest management method (n=84) and biological control (n=73) are the most studied agroecological practices, both under on-station and on-farm conditions. All agroecological management strategies significantly reduced bacterial wilt incidence and increased yields when compared to the untreated control. However, the results revealed that grafting of susceptible varieties on resistant rootstock (-4.832; n=41; CI_95%: -5.498; -4.037) was the most effective agroecological practice for bacterial wilt management in solanaceous crops, followed by varietal and biological control method. As expected, susceptible (-1.690; n=315; CI_95%: -1.967; -1.414) varieties show a higher bacterial wilt incidence (+142%) compared to tolerant varieties (-2.659; n=83; CI_95%: -3.178; -2.140), but yields were not significantly different. Overall, agroecological practices appear more effective in humid zones than in arid zones, and more effective in highly acidic soils than in moderately acidic soils. Our results show that agroecological practices can be effective at managing the incidence of bacterial wilt, allowing for significantly higher yields of solanaceous crops.

Keywords: Agroecology, bacterial wilt, management, Ralstonia solanacearum, solanaceous crops

Contact Address: Moukaïla Bagri Bouraïma, University of Abomey-Calavi, Plant Genetic Resources and Crop Protection, Abomey-Calavi, Benin, e-mail: bagrimoukailagmail.com