Among the factors that affect the productivity of banana, stand out pests, diseases and inadequate cultural practices. In this context, plant parasitic nematodes have great importance for reducing the efficiency of water and soil nutrients absorption by the roots, causing the plants to fall down near harvest. About 146 nematode species have already been reported associated to banana roots. Nevertheless, only Radopholus similis, several species of the genus Meloidogyne, Helicotylenchus, Pratylenchus and Rotylenchulus cause significant losses in banana plantations. In plantations located in irrigated areas in the municipal districts of Petrolina/PE and Juazeiro/BA, questionnaires were applied to obtain information about the history of the area, including plant nutrition, fertility, cultural practices, incidence of pests and post-harvesting practices. It was observed that 90% of the area belonged to small farmers. The major problems pointed out were: inadequate management, including harvesting and post-harvesting practices, presence of nematodes and strong winds. In this research a survey of the occurrence of plant parasitic nematodes was carried out. Thus, this research aimed to identify the genera of the plant parasitic nematodes found, and to study the relationship between the banana production in the several selected areas with the population of plant parasitic nematodes in the soil and in the banana root system. In each selected area, 20 banana plants were marked and samples of soil and roots were taken. Each sample was composed of four samples of each plant to represent the population of nematodes. The genera of the most abundant nematodes were Helicotylenchus, Meloidogyne and Rotylenchulus. Nevertheless, the production was neither related to the number of farms in each location, nor with the plant parasitic nematode density (Helicotylenchus sp., Meloidogyne sp., Rotylenchulus sp., Pratylenchus sp. and Radopholus similis) associated with the soil or banana roots. It could be inferred that the cultural practices adopted in each location of irrigated banana production had a positive influence on the banana production (weight of bunches) under different plant parasitic nematode populations.
Management; Helicotylenchus; Radopholus; Meloidogyne; Pratylenchus
