Table 1.

Main agronomic characteristics of the three sampling locations: Guider, Djalingo, and Tcholliré

		Annual rainfall (mm)		Cotton area (ha)		Cotton area per farmer (ha)		Percentage of cotton area planted Jun-30		Seed-cotton yield (kg/ha)
Sampling location	Main crops and landscape	2006	Avg.*	2006	Avg.	2006	Avg.	2006	Avg.	2006	Avg.
Guider	Sorghum, corn, cotton, peanut	1122	1042	14 280	14823	0.6	0.6	67	47	947	1139
Djalingo	Peanut, corn, cotton, sorghum	942	983	10 054	11 084	0.7	0.9	89	83	924	1043
Tcholliré	Corn, peanut, cotton, wildlife reserve	967	1159	3197	2999	0.8	0.9	98	86	1065	1154

Information on cropping systems was obtained from SODECOTON data (Direction de la production agricole, Garoua, Cameroun (2006)) in a circular area (25 km radius) around each sampling location.

^*Average of 2004–2007 growing seasons. Although crops such as sorghum and peanut are known hosts of Helicoverpa armigera in several regions of the world, varieties grown in West Africa are seldom infested. Corn is generally 3–4 times more abundant than cotton in the cotton belt of Cameroon.