Use of nematicides to produce yam planting material free of Scutellonema bradys in Martinique (French West Indies)

Coating of yam seed tubers with liquid ethoprophos and cadusafos controlled a root population of Scutellonema bradys but did not produce a significant increase in yield. During storage, the yield loss was 10% with healthy tubers but reached 40% with infested tubers; the volume of necrotic tissues being proportional to the rate of infestation. When nematodes were controlled with cadusafos, only 23% of tuber yield was lost compared to 68% in untreated and nematode infested tubers. Seventy per cent of the tubers harvested from the plot treated with cadusafos were free of nematode. When these were cut into 200–230 g pieces, corresponding to seed tubers, 80% of them were healthy whereas only 30% were nematode-free, when pieces of tubers harvested in the non-treated plot were used.