Farmers’ knowledge, perception and practices in soybean bacterial leaf pustule management in Benin

Objective: This study aims to investigate the knowledge, perception and control strategies locally used by farmers against soybean bacterial leaf pustule in Benin. Methodology and Results: An investigation was conducted on farmers’ soybean knowledge, perception and practices (KPP) on the management of soybean bacterial leaf pustule in four Agro-Ecological Zones (AEZ) of Benin with high soybean production during August and September 2020. One hundred and sixty-eight (168) farmers were surveyed through face-to-face interviews using semi-structured questionnaire and visual observations in the field. After observing the disease symptoms through photos, about 69% of farmers asserted that soybean bacterial leaf pustule was present in their fields with low, medium or high incidences, from one to about ten years but the majority of farmers (85.4%) do not consider it a disease. They perceived the disease symptoms at all stages of the plant's development with peak severity during the pre-flowering (1.9%), flowering (37.4%), and pod development (44.6%). However, disease management was not performed by the majority of farmers with 100%; 94.6%; 91.9% and 73.3%, in AEZ IV, III, V and II respectively. The reasons are lack of knowledge on management practices; the unavailability of effective pesticides and lack of financial resources. Pesticides were used by 26.5%, 8.1%, and 5.4% in AEZ II, AEZ V and AEZ III respectively. Conclusions and application of findings: They used pesticides in AEZ II, III and V; mainly insecticides in AEZ II. No control strategy is adopted in AEZ IV. Thus, to limit the use of chemical pesticides, especially insecticides, better information on integrated management of soybean bacterial leaf pustule is needed. In addition, the establishment of an efficient popularization system of the scientific research results is essential. Keywords: farmers’ KPP, bacterial leaf pustule, soybean, management, Benin