Survey of Potato aphid (Myzus persicae) from Selected on-farm Potato growing Areas in Mbeya and Njombe regions of Tanzania

Potato aphid green peach (Myzus persicae Sulzer) is one of the serious pests in potato (Solanum tuberosum) production areas in the world. A survey was carried out during 2014 potato growing season to assess aphid and Coccinellid population abundance in potato production areas in Mbeya and Njombe regions situated in southern highlands of Tanzania. Aphid and Coccinellid abundance were sampled from 30 leaves selected randomly from ten plants. Estimates of aphid abundance from potato fields were carried out from transectline replicated three times. A total of 1,370 aphid populations were sampled during the survey period. Abundance from young leaves was 898, followed by medium leaves 270 and the least was old leaves represented by 202 individuals. The relative abundance of aphid population resulted from 15 minutes sampling effort per transect ranked from 8 individuals from Swaya village to 171 individuals from Atwelo village and the rest were in between. The differences between selected plant parts showed significant differences (p = 0.001). The results from this survey provides database on aphid population and Coccinellid natural enemies of potato aphid in potato growing areas which can be used for future research in the selected regions. Key words: Myzus persicae, potato aphid, Coccinelli