Monitoring of Tomato Leaf Miner (Tuta absoluta) and Assessment of Management Practices Adopted in Tanahun, Nepal

Background and Objective: Tuta absoluta, a destructive invasive pest of tomato (Meyrick 1917), was first reported in Nepal in May, 2016.The study aimed to evaluate the prevalence, severity, and distribution of Tuta absoluta infestation in tomato crops in Tanahun, Nepal, and to assess the effectiveness of pest management practices to identify optimal control measures based on farmers' feedback.Materials and Methods: The 68 tomato cultivating farmers' were selected through purposive simple random sampling.A semi-structured questionnaire was used for the household survey.Descriptive statistics, scaling and indexing were used to analyze the data.The significance test was done at a 5% level.Results: The majority of the farmers' (82.4%) cultivated in open fields.Insect pests, particularly Tuta absoluta, were identified as the primary challenge.Trap captures of TLM ranged from 51 to 672, with the highest population observed in Aanbukhaireni-1, likely due to variations in management practices.The incidence peaked in May, lowered significantly in June, and then rose again towards the end of June.While nearly all farmers' recognized Tuta absoluta, only 14.7% understood its life cycle.However, due to the pest's damaging nature, most could identify its larval and adult stages.Encouragingly, 58.8% of the farmers' demonstrated a good understanding of IPM.Conclusion: Chemical pesticides were identified as the most effective method for managing Tuta absoluta, followed by pheromone traps, based on farmers' experiences.Enhancing tomato production requires strengthening extension services to improve farmers' knowledge of the pest's biology and promoting eco-friendly IPM strategies, including biological controls and resistant varieties.Adopting sustainable practices can mitigate the pest's impact on tomato yields and quality.