A Review of Insect Pest Management in Vegetable Crop Production in Nigeria

SIMPLE SUMMARY: Vegetable crops are grown in Nigeria for their edible fruits, leaves, and succulent shoots and roots. The vegetables include okra, tomatoes, chilli peppers, cucumbers, green amaranth, carrots and onions. Insect pest infestations and damages to these crops can greatly limit their availability for human consumption if unchecked. The insect pests include foliage beetles, caterpillars, aphids, fruit flies, stink bugs, and grasshoppers. Vegetable growers have many different chemical and non-chemical methods that can be used to mitigate insect damage to vegetable crops including the application of synthetic insecticides, modification of cultural practices, use of resistant varieties, application of botanicals and conservation practices for natural enemies of the insect pests, and these are presented in this review. By combining as many pest management tools as practicable, the insect pest problems of vegetables in Nigeria can be reasonably managed in a sustainable manner. ABSTRACT: Insect pest infestations and damage can limit the production of vegetables in the farming systems in Nigeria. This review looks at integrated insect pest management as a possible panacea for resolving insect pest issues in vegetable crops. The main vegetable crops which include okra, tomatoes, chilli peppers, cucumbers, green amaranth, carrots and onions are highlighted. The major insect pests of the various vegetables which include foliage beetles, caterpillars, aphids, fruit flies, stink bugs, and grasshoppers are also mentioned. The various control measures that have been empirically verified for the mitigation of the impact of these insect pests, including the application of synthetic insecticides, modification of agronomic practices, use of resistant varieties, application of botanicals, biological and mechanical controls, are discussed. Studies which have been carried out attempting to integrate two or more of the control strategies for better insect pest control are also reviewed. Strategies that can be put in place for the integrated pest management of vegetable insect pests in Nigeria are considered. Among the IPM (Integrated Pest Management) practices instituted for the mitigation of pest infestations on vegetable crops in Nigeria, intercropping of suitable vegetables in combination with the application of aqueous extracts of Azadirachta indica and Piper guineense seeds under good farm hygiene and sanitation proved to be most successful.