The effect of agronomic practices and relationship of smallholders perspective on population and abundance of oryctes rhinoceros in relation to its natural enemies in oil palm in Johor / Nurul Farahana Hazira Hazlee

Oryctes rhinoceros is a major pest of oil palm in South-eastern Asia. The severe damage of young oil palm done by Oryctes rhinoceros can cause the death of palm tree. The Oyctes rhinoceros feeds on plant sap of the palm tree. A study was carried out on the population dynamics of Oryctes rhinocero...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Hazlee, Nurul Farahana Hazira
Format: Thesis
Language:English
Published: 2020
Subjects:
Online Access:https://ir.uitm.edu.my/id/eprint/60063/1/60063.pdf
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Summary:Oryctes rhinoceros is a major pest of oil palm in South-eastern Asia. The severe damage of young oil palm done by Oryctes rhinoceros can cause the death of palm tree. The Oyctes rhinoceros feeds on plant sap of the palm tree. A study was carried out on the population dynamics of Oryctes rhinoceros and its natural enemies in North Johor for 10 months started from January 2017 to October 2017. Besides, there survey on knowledge and awareness towards Good Agronomic Practices (GAP) of the independent smallholders has been conducted in three selected district (Muar, Segamat and Tangkak). Pheromone trap (ethyl 4-metyloctanoate) was used to capture the Oryctes rhinoceros and yellow sticky trap was used to trap the natural enemies. The result shows that the population of Oryctes rhinoceros in oil palm’s smallholders and the present of natural enemies helped to reduce the Oryctes rhinoceros population. Interestingly, relationship between damage symptom and pest was significantly observed. Surprisingly, the present of Orytes rhinoceros in the trap was categorised low but the damage symptoms of the oil palm tree were quite severe. For bio control aspect, the population of the natural enemies was found low due to lack of breeding site or host for natural enemies surrounding oil palm area. As conclusion, low population of the Oryctes rhinoceros could give significant effect to plant damage which was very difficult to control probably due to resistance development against insecticides. Reevaluation of the threshold level of the Oryctes rhinoceros on the oil palm should be carried out in future. For the intervention program, the presence of natural enemies in oil palm area such as Platymeris laevicollis is greatly important, therefore, the smallholders are encouraged and suggested to plant beneficial plants to increase the population of natural enemies which subsequently could enhance the predation and parasitization rate. The baseline data of the status and relationship between pest and natural enemies should be updated from time to time for better understanding and could improve sustainability program of pest management.