The Government of Thail and, through its Department of Agriculture based at Chatuchak, Bangkok, has requested the assistance of the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) to help in the biological control of the cassava mealybug, Phenacoccus manihoti, which had recently invaded country and possibly also Laos and Cambodia.
The mealybug has already spread over 160,000 hectares around the East and Northeastern provinces of Thail and, where cassava is an important export crop mainly for starch production and cattle feed.
To halt the spread of the mealy bug, a stock rearing colony of Anagyrus lopezi, a natural enemy of the pest, has been imported into Thail and from the IITA laboratories in Benin by Georg Goergen, IITA Entomologist. Goergen brought the materials in September 2009.
The wasps were placed into rearing under quarantine conditions in Bangkok and released in November 2009 after release permits were issued. Further releases were made in January 2010.
It will be recalled that this same mealybug had reached Africa in the late 1970s and caused widespread devastation and even famine when it destroyed cassava, which in Africa is an important food and locally traded subsistence crop.
Respite came when an IITA-led group of institutions initiated a campaign to find, import, rear and distribute adapted natural enemies from South America, the purported home of the foreign invader. By 1981, the encyrtid parasitoid A. lopezi (then Apoanagyrus ou Epidinocarsis) was located in Paraguay, later in Brazil, shipped through quarantine, mass-reared at IITA and distributed. What followed was one of the greatest recent successes in classical biological control.
In Thail and, the cassava mealybug was not immediately recognized because another closely related mealybug species common on cassava, presumably Phenacoccus madeirensis, confused the situation, according to Peter Neuenschw ander, IITA Emeritus Scientist based in IITA-Benin. He says the identification of the mealybug by a taxonomic authority cleared the path for classical biological control.
It is hoped that IITA’s involvement in the mealybug control project in Asia will produce results within a much shorter time span and at much reduced costs as experts intend to leverage on past experience and techniques that made the African success story.
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Pour plus d'informations, veuillez contacter :
Dr. Peter Neuenschw ander, p.neuenschw ander@cgiar.org
Scientist Emeritus
IITA-Bénin
Dr. Georg Goergen, g.goergen@cgiar.org
Entomologist
IITA-Bénin
Godwin Atser, g.atser@cgiar.org
Chargé de la communication d'entreprise (Afrique de l'Ouest)
Jeffrey T. Oliver, o.jeffrey@cgiar.org
Chargé de communication d'entreprise (international)
Bureau de la communication
IITA – Siège
Ibadan, Nigéria
À propos de l'IITA
L'Afrique est confrontée à des problèmes complexes qui minent l'agriculture et la vie des populations. Nous développons des solutions agricoles avec nos partenaires pour lutter contre la faim et la pauvreté. Notre recherche pour le développement (R4D), maintes fois récompensée, repose sur une réflexion ciblée et autorisée, ancrée dans les besoins de développement de l'Afrique subsaharienne. Nous travaillons avec des partenaires en Afrique et au-delà pour réduire les risques pour les producteurs et les consommateurs, améliorer la qualité et la productivité des cultures, et générer de la richesse grâce à l'agriculture. L'IITA est une organisation internationale de recherche pour le développement sans but lucratif, créée en 1967, dirigée par un Conseil d'administration et soutenue principalement par le CGIAR.
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