The insect pests of coffee and their distribution in Kenya

Abstract

Coffee insect pests constrain the production of anticipated high coffee yield and quality. Knowledge of common insect pests on coffee is important to facilitate the designing of effective control strategies that are likely to vary from one coffee growing region to the other because of possible variation in their distribution. To ascertain the insect pests infesting coffee in Kenya, their distribution in different coffee growing agro-ecological zones and the common control strategies being applied, an extensive field survey was conducted in all coffee growing regions. The survey established a total of 20 insect pests as a constraint to coffee production as recorded from the respondents. Only nine (9) were common with over 20% of the surveyed coffee farms reporting their infestation. The Green Scales, Coccus alpinus De Lotto dominated in all the surveyed coffee farms, as was reported by 61.7% of the respondents. The insect pests reported varied in their distribution across the coffee growing agro ecological zones. Coffee thrips, Diarthrothrips coffeae Williams was major in UM1 where 52.8% of the farms reported thrips infestation. Both C. alpinus and D. coffeae equally dominated in UM2 with 61.5% of the farms reporting the infestation. In UM3, C. alpinus at 78.1% was most prevalent insect pest. The findings from the survey established that coffee suffers heavily from a complex of insect pests’ infestation that constraint its productivity. Among these pests, C. alpinus was dominant in most coffee farms and agro ecological zones.