Addressing pest and disease challenges in the national forest plantations: lessons learned from the National Forest Health Forum
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Date
2018
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Tanzania Forestry Research Institute (TAFORI) and Tanzania Forest Fund (TaFF)
Abstract
This paper presents the results of the work carried out by the National Forest Health Forum (NFHF), which
covered five National Forest Plantations: Mbizi (Sumbawanga), Meru/Usa (Kilimanjaro), Meru (Arusha),
Shume (Tanga) and Sao Hill (Iringa) for the period of five years (May, 2012 - July, 2017). The problems
addressed are diseases caused by pathogens and those caused by inadequacies of various requirements
from the soils. Many of the diseases have been soil-borne which gave rise to foliar symptoms, with Armillaria
root rot being in the lead. Occasionally, the ravage by insect pests was encountered at Sao Hill and Meru
Forest Plantations. These problems threaten the productivity of the plantations against the objective for
the plantations of supporting the much needed industrialization process. To a large extent, these problems
which were recorded in the visited plantations were noted to be accelerated by two phenomena namely;
climate change and taungya. Therefore, this paper describes the problems addressed in the plantations;
the steps adopted in addressing them, key findings and recommendations for achieving better plantations.
Description
Article Proceedings
Keywords
Forest diseases, soil-borne pathogens, insect pests, National Forest Health Forum