CHAPTER I

Introduction

Background of the Study

Coffee is a beverage made from the roasted and ground seeds of African-

derived tropical evergreen coffee bushes. Along with water and tea, coffee is one

of the three most consumed beverages worldwide and one of the most lucrative

global commodities. Although there are countless drinks that use coffee as their

base, caffeine, an alkaloid found in coffee, is primarily responsible for its

energizing effects. 2021 data from the Philippine Statistics Authority

(PSA) 12 Soccsksargen Region has the widest area devoted to

coffee production in the country with 26,172 hectares planted to

the said crop. Of this area, 20,437 hectares, or 78 percent are in

the province of Sultan Kudarat. In terms of coffee production, in

2021 the region ranked first in the Philippines, contributing about

34.66 percent (21,007.41 metric tons ) to dried coffee (DC) and

34.66 percent (10,503.71 MT) of green coffee beans (GCB)

produced in the country.Sultan Kudarat contributed 85.90

percent of both for dried coffee and green coffee beans to the

total regional production.

 Despite the growth of coffee production, problems still

cause the harvest to decrease or yield loss. Fungal disease or

pathogens is one of the major causes of yield losses, coffee rust,

also called coffee leaf rust, devastating foliar disease of coffee plants caused by

the fungus Hemileia vastatrix. Long known in coffee-growing areas of Africa,

the Near East, India, Asia, and Australasia, coffee rust was discovered in 1970 to

be widespread in Brazil, the first known infected area in the Western

Hemisphere. Coffee rust destroyed the once-flourishing coffee plantations of Sri

Lanka and Java in the late 1800s, and an epidemic in Central America and the

Caribbean has decimated numerous plantations in the region since 2012.

( Encyclopaedia , March 19, 2018 )

The genus Trichoderma comprises a large number of rhizocompetent

filamentous fungal strains found in a large variety of ecosystems. These fungi are

mostly isolated from forest or agricultural soils at all latitudes and can be easily

cultured in vitro. T ( Brotman, Y., Kapuganti, J. G., & Viterbo, A. (2010).

Trichoderma. Current Biology, 20(9), R390-R391.)

OBJECTIVES

The general obgectives of this study is to determine the performance of coffee

with the infestation of coffee rust disease by Hemileia vastatrix controlled by

different Trichoderma foliar spray methods.

Specifically the study aimed to:

 a. Determine the effectiveness of different trichoderma against coffee rust

disease caused by Hemileia vastatrix .

b. Determine the effectiveness of different level of trichoderma by coffee rust.

Time and Place of the Study

This study will be conducted at the Regional Crop Protection Center (RCPC),

Barangay EJC Montella Tacurong City, Sultan Kudarat Province from November

2023 to February 2024.

Scope and Limitation of the Study

The study was limited only to the efficacy of different species of Trichoderma

against coffee rust caused by hemileia vastatrix in coffee. It will be conducting on

November 2023, and February 2024.

Operational Definition of Term

Trichoderma – a genus of fungi in the family hypocreaceae that is present in all

soils and used as a biocontrol agent to control soil borne diseases as well as

some leaf and panicle diseases of various plant.

Trichoderma harzianum – a specie of trichoderma that mainly used in

controlling of diseases.
Trichoderma viridi – mainly used in biofertilizers as biocontrol agent for plant

pathogenic in crops.

Trichoderma asperellum – biological control and plant growth promoting

agents.

Coffee rust – is a diseases in coffee infestation in leaves reduces photosynthetic

capacity and weakness of coffee tree and causing decrease plant yield

production.

CHAPTER II

According to Pinto et al. [18,] the first disease signs, based on the disease

progress curve, occur from December to January. Then, there is an increase in

the disease progress rate in March and April, assuming exponential growth.

Finally, from June to August, normally after the harvest in a cold climate with

reduced rainfall, the culture displays the most intense disease signs throughout

the year. The pathogen sporulation reaches its greatest intensity and a drastic fall

of leaves can occur with severe reduction of the plant canopy.

Currently, H. vastatrix and H. coffeicola Maubl. and Roger are the known

causative agents of the CLR disease (Thirumalachar and Narasimhan,

1947; Ritschel, 2005; Talhinhas et al., 2017) Hemileia vastatrix is the major

agent causing substantial yield loss in worldwide coffee production. On the

contrary, H. coffeicola occurs only in West and Central Africa on C.

canephora (Ritschel, 2005). Previously, the global outbreaks of CLR have always

been related to H. vastatrix. The native range of the fungus is suggested to be a

geographic range spanning the Great Lake region, Ethiopia, and the eastern half

of the Congo River basin in East Africa (McCook, 2019). After the domestication

of C. arabica in Yemen in the fifteenth century, the fungus and its cultivated host

had spread through Ceylon and southern India in 1869.

Chemical control of plant diseases can be impressive but this is

comparatively a short term measure and additionally, the accumulation of harmful

chemical residues sometimes causes serious ecological problems. In recent

years, the increasing use of potentially hazardous chemicals in agriculture has

been resulted in growing concern of both environment and public health

properties. Moreover use of such chemicals entails a substantial cost to the

nation and developing country like India can not afford it. By contrast, biological

control is risk-free when it results in enhancement of resident antagonists.

Moreover, an integrated approach promotes a degree of disease suppression

similar to that achieved with full fungicidal treatment. For about 70 years,

Trichoderma spp. have been known to attack other fungi, to produce antibiotics

that affect other microbes and to act as biocontrol microbes (Weindling, 1934).

The success of Trichoderma as biocontrol agents (BCAs) is due to their

high reproductive capacity, ability to survive under very unfavorable conditions,

efficiency in the utilization of nutrients, capacity to modify the rhizosphere, strong

aggressiveness against phytopathogenic fungi and efficiency in promoting plant

growth and defense mechanisms. These properties have made Trichoderma a

ubiquitous genus present in any habitat and at high population density (Misra and

Prasad, 2003).

The etymology of Trichoderma is taken from thrix (hair and derma) skin.

Trichoderma is free living, asexually reproducing and filamentous fungi. It is an

exceptionally good model of biocontrol agent as it is widely spread, easy to

isolate and culture, multiply rapidly on many substrates, act as mycoparasite,

strong opportunistic invaders, avirulant plant symbionts, competes for food and

site, prolific producers of spores and powerful antibiotics, antifungal compounds,

secondary metabolites and enzymes. These properties make these fungi

ecologically very successful and are the reasons for their ubiquitousness

(Kubicek et al., 2002).

One of the major problems associated with the use of beneficial microbes

in agriculture is the variability of their effects on target organisms, which can be

affected by environmental conditions. Indeed, the selection of

appropriate Trichoderma for applications in agriculture depends not only on the

targeted use, that is, the biological control of pathogens or pests or the use as

biostimulants, but also on the ecological adaptability of the strains to diverse

environments (i.e., soils of different properties—structure, pH, and organic

matter), availability of water and nutrients, climatic conditions and to crops (i.e.,

species or genotypes) that may influence their efficacy in the field (Hjeljord and

Tronsmo, 1998).
 CHAPTER III

Methodology

This chapter includes the detailed discussion of methods that were used in the

study and how the data will be gathered.

Materials

Coffee seedlings, polyethylene bag or pots, pale , sprayer/ Knapsack sprayer,

potato, agar, sugar, clip, bamboo sticks, placard and fly wood, kaserola, strainer,

gas stove, transparent cellophane, ballpen , pencil, record book note book, ang

other materials which will be needed.

Location of the study

This study will be conducting in Regional Crop Protection Center (RCPC) at

Bario dos Barangay EJC Montella, Tacurong City, Sultan Kudarat Province from

November 2023 to February 2024.

Experimental Design and Treatment

The Study will be conducted in a Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD)

The treatment were as follow;

Factors A. Different species of Trichoderma

T1- Control

T2- T. harzianum

T3- T. viridi

T4- T. asperellum

Factors B. Different Levels of Applications

125gms- 1L

150gms- 1L

200gms- 1L
Field Layout of the Study

T1 T2 T3

T2 T3 T4

T3 T4 T5

T4 T5 T1

T5 T1 T2
Methods of Applications

Preparing of seedlings - Arrangements of coffee seedlings according to the field

Layout.

Inoculation of coffee rust - Using Clippers the leaf infected with coffee rust attach

to the coffee seedlings leaves using clip and cover it with a transparent

cellophane and wait for 3 to 4 weeks.

Collecting of Trichoderma – Using boiled corn an cooked rice puting into the soil

with the environmental conditions moisture soil or foresting area and watery area.

Culture of Trichoderma - Making a PDA Potatoes Dextrose Agar, Boiled the

potato

Application of Trichoderma - Dilute the trichoderma with a 1 leter of water and

after the dilution put it to the spayer ang directly spay into the infected leaves for

the T1 ( control) , T2 ( 100grams of T) , T3 ( 125 grams of T) , T4 ( 200 grams of

T ).

Data to be Gathered

To know the effectiveness of trichoderma

To know the best application of trichoderma

To identify the different trichoderma best for controlling of coffee rust disease.