Assessment of farmer’s awareness on occurrence, prevalence and management of sisal bole rot disease in Muheza district

In Tanzania, sisal is a good source of income and employment to many rural residents whose livelihoods depend on agriculture. For many years, Tanzania has been promoting sisal industry especially small scale farmers’ participation in the sisal industry. One of the important disease threatening sisal production is bole rot, a disease that is associated with fungus of Aspergillus species. This study aimed to determine farmer’s level of awareness regarding occurrence, prevalence and management of bole rot disease. Interview administrated questionnaire was employed to obtain both qualitative and quantitative data from 71 small scale farmers and three sisal estates from the three major sisal growing wards in different agro-ecologies of Muheza district. Data was collected using Open Data Kit (ODK) Collect v2021.2.3 tool and inputted using Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS 20) software, transformed using Arcsine and analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. Pearson product moment correlation was used to find the relationship between selected demographic variables, production practices and farmers level of awareness on bole rot disease. The study revealed that, majority of the sisal farmers had moderate level of awareness regarding sisal bole rot disease. All the selected demographic variables and many production variables were found to have significant relationship with farmer’s level of awareness on bole rot disease. The results also revealed that majority of the sisal farmers are relying on their fellow sisal farmer’s and extension officers to obtain information on sisal production. Campaigns are needed to improve farmers’ awareness on sisal bole rot disease through public awareness and capacity building to extension officers.