**4.1 Cultural control**

One of the main conditions that favours the development of the mango anthracnose is high humidity. It is therefore important to establish mango orchards in areas with a well-defined dry season. This creates an unfavourable condition for the development of the disease [12]. In most tropical regions, flowering in mango plants occurs usually in the dry seasons. Nevertheless, this is dependent on other factors such as photoperiodism, growth stage of the shoot, specie of the mango, ambient temperature, as well as the nutritional state of the soil under cultivation. This brings some level of variations in the flowering period of mango from region to region. It has been noted that a very early flowering, usually before the dry season leads to a huge infection of the disease due to the higher relative humidity at the time of fruit formation and establishment [22, 23]. From another standpoint, a worst scenario of infection is seen when mango trees flower at the latter part of the dry season or when early-stage fruit development coincides with the peak of the raining season [24]. This can lead to a disease incidence of up to 90% in such occasions. For proper anthracnose disease management in the tropics, a plausible approach must be adopted to avoid situations where flowering an early-stage fruit development will coincide with the rainy season. A proper adherence to this approach could cumulatively, leads to a disease incidence and severity near zero present. However, despite the effectiveness of this strategy, it is near inapplicable in the subtropical regions where the main stimulants for flowering in mango is atmospheric temperature rather than lower water deficit. One of the most effective ways of managing the incidence and severity of this disease in these areas is the foliar application of a growth and flowering retardant (e.g. Paclobutrazole) either singly or in combination with potassium nitrate [24, 25]. By that, flowering in mango can be advanced by several days or weeks. Furthermore, traditional cultural practices such as the removal and proper incineration of infected plant parts such as fruits, branches, leaves among others can also be reliable in the cultural management system of mango anthracnose disease. In addition, practices such as removal of dry, infected, or malformed panicles and fruits can serve as one of the effective ways of managing the disease. However, these later practices can be laborious and time consuming on large area farms. Research has also revealed that wrapping of young developing fruits in paper bags as a way of creating barriers between the fruits and any possible inoculum of the disease can immensely reduce the incidence and severity of the disease. However, his method can also reduce the bright red/yellow colour observed in ripped mangoes. This, on a

broader perspective could insinuate that choosing a particular method or practice in managing the disease could highly depend on the objective and the target market of the farmer. For example, most industries that would rather prefer chemical free fruits to bright coloured ones will rather appreciate this approach as compared to the application of various synthetic fungicides other methods such as chemicals.
