The course content will encompass the basic concepts of classical genetics, Quantitative inheritance and population genetics, Biotechnology and Genetic engineering as applied to tree improvement. The course also deals about variation in natural stands and plantation forests, tree improvement through selection, genetic values and genetic gains, seed sources and mating system. In addition to exploring the science of heredity, the course aims to set the foundation for further studies on the strategies and techniques of forest improvement through selection and breeding with genetically superior tree species.

Arba Minch University, College of Agricultural Sciences

Department of Forestry

Module Title

Forest health

Course Tile:

Forest Entomology & pathology (FRST2091)

Instructor Name:

Dr. Berhanu Lemma

Instructor’s Contact Information

Office:________________________phone:_________________________

Email:__________________________office hours:___________

Course Information

 

Year: II                                     Semester:  II

Meeting location:____________Meeting time_______

ECTS

5

Student Workload

Lecture

Tutorial

Group work

Lab/practice

Home study

Total

48

 

 

48

39

135

Course Description

History and importance of forest pathology, relation of plant pathology with forest pathology, classification of tree disease,  broad classification of different pathogens causing tree diseases, principle of forest disease management. Definition, importance and scope of entomology. Definition of insect and its position in the animal kingdom, important characters of phylum arthropoda and class insect. External morphology of generalized insect, insect growth and development. History and importance of forest entomology and Principles of forest pests control 

Course Goals or Learning Outcome

objectives of the course are:

  • Introduce students with major insect pests and diseases affecting forest crops
  • Enhance student's understanding of scientific research gaps with regard forest insect pests and diseases in Ethiopian forest.
  • Provide a framework that students can use in their profession to best approach insect pests and diseases management.
  • Enhance student's understanding of Pesticide usage, Calibration and recommendation

Outcomes: At the end of the course students will be able to;

  • identify the major insect pests and diseases in Ethiopian forest, their biology, ecology, damages, symptoms and management measures
  • evaluate the importance of understanding biology and ecology of pests and diseases in relation to their management
  • Describe the different damages and symptoms caused by insect pests and pathogens
  • determine the working mechanisms of different management strategies and evaluate them for controlling specific insect pest problems and disease
  • calibrate pesticide spray equipment, volume and area of coverage
  • Understand the advantage and disadvantage of different management measures and provide specific remedies

Expectations

Students will be expected to identify the major insect pests and diseases of forests in Ethiopia. They will able to describe the different damages and symptoms caused by insect pests and pathogens. Student will know calibration techniques for pesticide spray equipments. They will have the knowledge and the skill on insect pests and diseases management techniques.

Summary of Teaching Learning Methods

Lectures, discussion, home studies, field visits, laboratory and field practical & reports.

Summary of Assessment Methods

Continuous assessment

-          quizzes 10%

-          tests 20%

-          assignments 10%

-          lab and field reports 10%

Final exam 50%

Policy

Attendance: It is compulsory come to class on time and every time. If you are going to miss more than three classes during the term, you should not take this course.

Assignments: you must do your assignment on time. No late assignment will be accepted.

Tests/Quizzes: you will have short quizzes and tests almost every class session. If you miss the class or, are late to class, you will miss the quiz or test. No makeup tests or quizzes will be given.

Cheating: you must do your own work and not copy and get answers from someone else.

Schedule

Topics and subtopics

Week

Date

1

Pest Assessment

Sampling insect population

Types of insect damage

Option of pest management

2

Insect pests of major economic importance

 

General seedling pests

-          Crickets, Grasshoppers, Leaf miners, Termites, Cutworms,  ant, White Grubs

3

Insect pests of trees

 

-          Forest  insect pests

-          Insects pests of euclayptus  

6

Citrus pests

       (Mediterranean fruit fly, Orange dog

       Citrus psylid, Red scale, Cottony cushion         scale, False codling moth, Citrus leaf miners)

7

Coffee pests

(Coffee antestia, Coffee leaf miner, coffee leaf skeletons, berry borer, stem borers, mealy bug, soft scales)

9

Disease of major economic importance

  • Naming and classification of the disease and the pathogen

                 Economic importance

                     (Extent of loss and  Nature of loss)

  • Symptoms of plant diseases

9

Major seedling and tree disease in Ethiopia

 

  • Damping off and seedling blight
  • Root rots (Root rots of annuals, Root and Foot                   rots of trees)
  • Wilts (Fungal wilts, Bacterial wilts)
  • Mildews (Downy mildews, Powdery mildew)
  • Spots and blights
  • Rusts (tree  rusts)
  • Smuts (Covered smut. Loose smut, Head smut )
  • Anthracnose
  • Viral disease

·          Nematodes

ACTIVITIES

  Field trips to various sites

1.1   Make pest and disease assessment practices

1.2   Observe pest damages and disease symptoms

1.3   Collect different samples of pests and disease

2.       Pesticide usage

2.1   Calibration

2.1.1         Calibration of manual Knapsack sprayer

2.1.2         Calibration of tractor mounted boom sprayer

2.1.3         A film show on calibration of tractor mounted sprayer

2.2   Application equipment

3.       Laboratory work on:

3.1    Observation and identification of important insect pests and diseases of trees

3.2    Preservation of insect and disease sample

3.3    Isolation of different plant pathogens

3.4    Purification of plant pathogens

3.5   Inoculation of different plant pathogens

References

1.      Agrios, G.N.  2005. Plant Pathology. Academic press

2.      Hill, D.S. and Waller, J.M. 1990. Pests and Diseases of Tropical Crops. Vol. I Longman Scientific and Technical

3.      Hill, D.S. and Waller, J.M. 1988. Pests and Diseases of Tropical Crops. Vol. II Longman. UK.pp432.

4.      Dent D. 1989. Insect pest management. CAB International

5.      Tsedeke Abate edn. 1985. A review of crop protection research in Ethiopia. Proceedings of the first Ethiopian crop protection Symposium. IAR, Addis Ababa.:


This course will help in understanding about causes, symptom, control and management of diseases, insect pests and fire. The course will include  General concepts and classification of plant diseases ,  Sysmptoms and signs of plant diseases ,  Biology of root diseases ,  Biology of leaf diseases,  Dieback and decline diseases, Biology of stem disease , Principles of tree disease management , Methods of tree disease management in Forestry, Classification of Forest pests, Insect Pest and Diseases of Forest nurseries & Their control, IPM, methods and principles of IPM,  Pest anagement system at plantation stage, Insect pests of some important trees,  Introduction;  Principles of combustion ,  Ecological effects of fire,  Fire behavior etc.

Practical:  

1.      Collection and identification of some nursery diseases and pests

To visit entomology or plant pathology lab to understand about  general plant pathological equipments and their uses in laboratory


As a prelude to independent project work, students will be introduced to concepts in planning and designing research projects;  approaches in problem identification;  prioritizing research problems; methods of data collection; compilation, editing, coding, data entry and analysis; the processes of effective scientific writing and presentation


This course will make students acquainted with various wood processing techniques and  will introduce about machines, tools or chemicals used in conversion of wood in different types of wood products. The course will through the light on different aspects of wood processing.   There are seen Unit in this course where Unit 1 is introductory one which will give general introduction abut the course. Unit two deals with various types of wood working machines and their types whereas Unit three through light on saw mill and wood workshop, types of saw mills and difference between permanent and portable saw mill. The Unit 4 is all about pulp and paper production where students will learn about paper production processes and different types of papers and rayon production whereas Unit 5 deals with composit wood and improved wood which including preparation of different types of boards and improved wood  i.e. ply wood, laminated wood, core boards, sandwich boards, fibre boards, particle boards, improved wood, impregnated wood, compressed wood, compregnated wood, chemically modified wood etc. Unit 6 deals with destructive distillation of hard wood and soft wood. The last or 7th Unit deals with concept of wood seasoning, principles and methods of wood seasoning etc. 

Agroforestry is defined as:-

  • a collective name for all land use systems and practices where woody perennials are deliberately grown on the same piece of land management unit as agricultural crops and/or animals either in some form of spatial mix or temporal sequences (Lundgren, 1982).
  • is a land use system that involve socially and ecologically acceptable interaction of trees with agricultural crops and/or animals, simultaneously or sequentially so as to get increased total productivity of plant and animal in a sustainable manner from a unit of farm land specially under conditions of low levels of technology inputs and marginal lands (Nair, 1989).
  • is sustainable land management system which increases the overall yield of the land, combines the production of crops and forest plants and/or animals simultaneously or sequentially on the same unit of land, and applies management practices that are compatible with cultural practices of local population.
  • is a dynamic ecologically based management system of natural resources that through the integration of trees on farms and in the agricultural landscapes, diversifies and sustains production for increased social, economic and environmental benefits for land users at all levels (ICRAF, 1997, Leakey, 1996).

This definition implies that an Agroforestry system:

  • normally involves two or more species (trees, crops or animals),
  • always has one or two outputs
  • the cycle of the systems has more than one year
  • even the simplest system is more complex ecologically and economically than mono- cropping system

CH-1

CH-2

CH-3

CH-4

Lecture

Home study

Practical

Unit 1: The Climate & weather

Unit 2:The climate system 
Unit 3:History of climate change
Unit 4:Climate change impacts, mitigation and adaptation
Unit 5:Forestry and climate change


WHAT IS ECOLOGY?

The word ECOLOGY has come to the forefront of human consciousness and has become a commonly used household word. It has come to be recognized as a science which helps to integrate some of the fundamental concepts of civilization. Ecology has emerged as a science of survival Ecology was formed from two Greek words [Gk: oikos; home and logos; the study of ] –First coined by Earnst Haechel (1869). Ecology therefore means the study of an organism in its natural home. Odum (1963) defined ecology as the study of structure and function of nature or the study of inter-relationships between organisms and their environment.

ECOLOGY AS A COURSE:

Ecology is part of Biology because it deals with life –probing into the secrets of various levels living systems–organism, population. It is a multidisciplinary science that uses the tools of other discipline to explain natural observed phenomena.

WHO IS AN ECOLOGIST?

An Ecologists is a Physiologists-as such ecology may be interpreted as EXTERNAL PHYSIOLOGY of an organism and physiology as INTERNAL ECOLOGY of an organism An Ecologists must be familiar with physics, chemistry, astronomy, geology, climatology, soil science, statistics, and closely allied areas as taxonomy, morphology, histology, genetics, physiology and ecology

WHAT DOES HE DO?

She/he seeks with the aid of several instruments both simple and sophisticated to determine the processes and energy transfer and cycling of elements in nature. He/she strives to provide a greater depth of understanding and an insight into how the world works.

HIS TOOLS: Here are some of his tools, though the list is not exhaustive: tracer methodology, spectrometry, colorimetry, chromatography, remote sensing, mathematical modelling, computer technology

BASIC ECOLOGICAL CONCEPTS

There are 4 basic principles of ecology”

1. The system of ecology is huge (ecosystem) and it contains a network of interrelations of its parts.

2. These interrelated network is inclusive of a structure that contains both the abiotic and biotic composition (environment).

3. The networks present in the ecological system have a control of the energy flow and also in the flow of nutrients.

4. Energy from our solar system has a control over the flow of all the nutrient and energy.

ECOLOGY SEEKS TO EXPLAIN

·Life processes and adaptations

·Distribution and abundance of organisms

·The movement of materials and energy through living communities

·The successional development of ecosystems

·The abundance and distribution of biodiversity in context of the environment

Emanating from these 4 basic principles are many basic ecological concepts developed in order to study this complexity: Habitat; Population; Territories; Community; Ecosystem