Canopy Management for Sustainable Passion Fruit Production

Abstract

Yellow passion fruit (Passiflora edulis var. Flavicarpa) is gaining a wide adoption in Kenya, emerging as an important high market value horticultural crop. However, its current yields levels are low due to poor agronomic practices. This study aimed at evaluating the orchard management practices for sweet yellow passion fruits by farmers, with a special focus on canopy management. A survey was conducted on sweet yellow passion fruit in Embu East sub- county, Kenya from June 2016 to august 2016. The sweet yellow passion fruit farmers were randomly sampled using a stratified sampling procedure. Personal interviews with the farmers were conducted in each household using structured and semi- structured questionnaires. The data was analysed using SPSS version 20. Correlation between pruning intensity and dieback disease incidence was analysed using Pearson’s correlation model. Findings from the study showed that pruning intensity among farmers varied from very low, moderate to very high. The results showed that 9.8% of farmers pruned moderately, 58.8% of farmers pruned with a low pruning intensity and 29.4% of farmers pruned with a very low pruning intensity. Pruning intensity was negatively correlated (-0.265) to dieback incidence at 0.05% level of significance at a p value of 0.040 the results imply that most farmers pruned the vines at low intensity with the aim of retaining more vines. However, this resulted to more incidence of the dieback disease. The farmers require effective training skills on vine pruning to provide an appropriate canopy size which would improve the productivity of sweet yellow passion fruits.