*Sedyo Hartono and Alan Soffan
Department of Plant Pest and Disease, Faculty of Agriculture, Universitas Gadjah Mada, Yogyakarta, Indonesia
*Coresponding Author: sedyohartono@ugm.ac.id
Abstract. Chili (Capsicum annuum) is a horticultural crop with high economic value. Magelang Regency is a chili plantation center area in Central Java with total area of approximately 500 ha per year. Recently the production of chili in Magelang has decreased very drastically due to yellow curly leaf infection caused by Pepper yellow leafcurl virus (PepYLCV), a member of the genus Begomovirus, family Geminiviridae. PepYLCV is only transmitted by one species of whitefly (Bemisia tabaci) which is resistant to various pesticides. This activity aims to provide assistance to farmers on alternative control of environmentally friendly yellow virus disease with the title “Application of Screen Insect Knock-Down Technology as Physical Barrier for the Control of Yellow Chili Disease in Banyudono, Dukun, Magelang”, which application of the results of previous studies. The same technology has been successfully applied at the company scale to control leafcurl diseases in tobacco plant at PTPN X, Klaten, Central Java. The results of the activity showed that the insect screen barrier as high as 3 meters around the land was able to protect the chilli plants from seedlings to transplanting on the field area from virus infection. Screen insect is able to prevent B. tabaci enter into the field. This is indicated by the presence of severe viral infections in chili plants in unprotected land, compared to the chili plants in the screen. Another result is that there are no cabbage pests that attack broccoli as chilli intercropping plants in the screen compared to broccoli plants outside the screen which are attacked by armyworms by up to 20%. This activity has provided education to farmers about other alternatives to controlling yellow virus disease which are environmentally friendly without using pesticides.
Keywords: Chili, Yellowing disease, PepY:CV, Begomovirus, screen barrier