Optimizing crop varietal mixtures for viral disease management: A case study on cassava virus epidemics
Fig 9
Decoy plants can protect cassava from cassava brown streak ipomovirus under high whitefly pressure.
An optimal proportion of 82.9% decoy plants attracts enough whiteflies to significantly lower the disease incidence. This insures 4.1 tons/ha of cassava yield associated with the 17.1% of susceptible cassava in the mixture, while a monoculture of susceptible cassava achieves 3.1 tons/ha.