EVALUATION OF BIOCONTROL AGENT AGAINST BLACK POD AND COCOA POD BORER
Authors: Nurfadzilah M., Ahmad Kamil M.J., Suhaida, S.
Journal Issue: Malaysian Cocoa Journal, Volume 14/2022
Keywords: Biological control, biosurfactant, black pod, cocoa pod borer and cocoa
Published On: 10/05/2022
Abstract
Major losses of cocoa yield and quality caused by soil-borne plant disease and pest have long threatened the ecology and economy of cocoa plantation. Biological control using microorganisms has become an alternative way in managing soil-borne pathogens and pests. Biological control agents isolated from healthy cocoa pods and the infected pod surface (resident antagonist) can inhibiting the growth of the pathogen. Therefore, one synergistic microbial agent formulations have been developed where the microbes produced Bio surfactant which create unfavorable condition to Cocoa Pod Borer lay the eggs on the cocoa pod surface beside destruction and retardation of mycelium growth. The trial was aim to evaluate the efficacy of biocontrol agent with control treatment. There are two treatments used in this study which is T1 – application of biocontrol agent formulation and T2 – application of control treatment. The application of microbial was done once in every two weeks, while data of black pod incident and cocoa pod borer infestation were recorded after a week of microbial application. The objective of this study was to determine the efficacy of microbial biocontrol agent for controlling Black Pod and Cocoa Pod Borer in mature cocoa tree. In the presence of Biocontrol agents resulted in decreasing incidents of Black pod in 2018 and 2019.