Prevalence of Nematodes in Rhizosphere of Kiwi Plants (Actinidia deliciosa Chev., 1984) in International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD), Knowledge Park, Godawari, Lalitpur, Nepal

Background: Plants harbor many trophic groups of nematodes in them. The plant production is also determined by the occurrence of nematodes adjacent to the rhizosphere of plants, such as parasitic, free-living etc. Methods: Altogether 60 samples (30 from 20 cm depth and 30 from 30 cm depth) were examined from the Kiwi plants to detect the nematode distribution in Kiwi plants in ICIMOD, Godawari, Lalitpur, Nepal. Overall, 1510 individuals of 10 nematodes genera (both free living/beneficial and parasitic) belonging to four orders were found to be associated with Kiwi plants, among them the highest report was of order Mononchida (44.04%) which was followed by Rhabditida (33.44%), Dorylaimida (17.88%) and Tylenchida (4.64%). The number of nematodes were higher at 20 cm depth than at 30 cm depth. Iotonchus spp. was highest (32.68%) and the number of Helichotylenchus spp. (3.93%) and Mesorhabditis spp. (3.92) were lowest at 20 cm depth. Similarly, Iotonchus spp. was highest (20.13%) and the number of Discolaimus spp. (4.03%) was lowest at 30 cm depth.