ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Farmers’ knowledge and perception of cocoa insect pests and damage and the implications for pest management on cocoa in Ghana
1
Entomology, Cocoa Research Institute of Ghana (CRIG), Ghana
2
Plant Pathology, Cocoa Research Institute of Ghana (CRIG), Ghana
3
Extension, Cocoa Health and Extension Division (CHED), Ghana
4
Social Science and Statistics Unit (SSU), Cocoa Research Institute of Ghana (CRIG), Ghana
A - Research concept and design; B - Collection and/or assembly of data; C - Data analysis and interpretation; D - Writing the article; E - Critical revision of the article; F - Final approval of article
Submission date: 2020-11-13
Acceptance date: 2020-12-23
Online publication date: 2021-06-19
Corresponding author
Godfred Kweku Awudzi
Entomology, Cocoa Research Institute of Ghana (CRIG), WACRI Road, +233, Koforidua, Ghana
Entomology, Cocoa Research Institute of Ghana (CRIG), WACRI Road, +233, Koforidua, Ghana
Journal of Plant Protection Research 2021;61(2):145-155
KEYWORDS
TOPICS
ABSTRACT
Annual losses of cocoa in Ghana to insect pests are significant. The use of integrated pest
management (IPM) tools is critical for effective pest management. Previous studies on
the subject have considered how farmers perceive the economic impact of insect pests on
cocoa. These studies however did not investigate farmers’ ability to identify pests, associated
damage symptoms and their implications for pest management. The current study,
therefore, assessed farmers’ ability to correctly associate insect damage with the pest
species that caused it. A total of 600 farmers were interviewed in the Eastern, Ashanti,
Western, Brong Ahafo and Central Regions of Ghana with a structured open and closedended
questionnaire. Most farmers (>85%) were unable to correctly identify and associate
pests to their damage. The majority (>80%) of farmers also could not link the immature
stages of insect pests to their adult stages. Wrong identification of the major pests
(>85%) led to a wide variation in the timing of insecticide application amongst farmers.
The majority of the farmers (60%) interviewed had not received training in insect pest
identification. The study shows that 90% of the farmers, who had received some training,
got it from the Cocoa Health and Extension Division (CHED) of the Ghana Cocoa Board
(COCOBOD). Almost all respondents (98%) agreed that correct pest identification is
critical for effective pest control. The importance of pest identification and monitoring as
a component of IPM is discussed.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The authors are grateful to the staff of CRIG (Entomology
and Social Science and Statistics Divisions)and
the Cocoa Health and Extension Division (CHED)
for their contribution during the administration of
the questionnaire and data entry. The authors are
also grateful to Dr. Owusu Domfeh (Plant Pathology Division, CRIG) for proofreading the manuscript.
We also wish to acknowledge the help of Mr. Nkroma
Y. Dankwa for generating the map of the study sites.
This paper is published with the kind permission of
the Executive Director of CRIG (CRIG/03/2020/
009/005).
CONFLICT OF INTEREST
The authors have declared that no conflict of interests exist.
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