IPM CRSP Biodiversity Conservation Activities Don Plucknett Purpose

IPM CRSP: Biodiversity Conservation Activities Don Plucknett

Purpose of the IPM CRSP Develop and implement an IPM approach to reduce: • Crop and income losses due to pests • Damage to natural ecosystems Before • Contamination of food and water After

Designed to improve: • opportunities for women • health & the environment • farmer knowledge • household income • & boost trade

Regional Programs • • Central Asia Southeast Asia Eastern Europe East Africa West Africa Latin America and Caribbean

Global themes (new phase) • • Invasive species Regional diagnostic labs Insect-transmitted viruses Information technologies and databases • Impact assessment

Participatory IPM Farmers Researchers Export agencies Private industry NGOs Involves all major stakeholders in IPM technology development and transfer Extension Govt. officials Policy makers

Biodiversity concerns begat IPM emerged as a problem solving approach: • to reduce pesticide use • to manage resistance of pests to pesticides • to reduce environmental contamination

Some history of IPM at USAID • International Plant Protection Center, Oregon State (1960’s-70’s) • UC/USAID Project in Pest Management and Environmental Protection (1971 -1980) • Consortium for International Crop Protection (1970’s-80’s) • IPM CRSP (1993 - present)

Using IPM to improve natural biodiversity • Landscape – agricultural intensification versus extensification • Pollution prevention • Problem analysis and rational decision making

Complex ecological relationships (brown planthopper in Indonesia) • Pests are frequently regulated by natural enemies, which themselves may be vulnerable to pesticide application.

Reducing non-target effects With respect to pesticide application, biodiversity can be conserved by either: • Reducing or restricting the area sprayed • Using narrow spectrum products • Using alternative techniques (e. g. pheromones, biocontrol, cultural practices)

Locusts in Africa

Biological control: Rationale for biopesticides Broad-spectrum insecticides can: • kill beneficial organisms • kill non-target vertebrates (indirect ingestion) • disrupt food webs upon which vertebrates depend. Pathogen-based biopesticides are host-specific, thereby leaving non-target communities intact.

Global theme on invasive species Parthenium: a weed known in Ethiopia as “Sign your land away” A North American/Central American native plant that threatens: • Cultivated land • Range lands • Natural biodiversity Invasion in Africa, South America, Southern Asia Parthenium

Worldwide distribution of Parthenium hysterophorus Source: University of Queensland’s Centre for Biological Information Technology

Information technology and databases • Sharing information through a Global IPM technology database • Prioritizing environmental benefits from limited supplies of environmentally friendly pest control products

Capacity building in bio-monitoring • Ecuador: training on use of aquatic insect larvae as bio-monitors of water quality. • Being continued in the SANREM CRSP • Offshoot of training researchers to identify parasitoids (potential biocontrol agents)

Insect-transmitted viruses • Develop and use advanced diagnostic resources to diagnose emergence of viral diseases • Understand manage transmission of viruses by their insect vectors, which sometimes are invasive species • Design and introduce ecologically-based management practices

Tospoviruses Transmitted by Thrips Tomato Peanut A serious threat to vegetables, ornamentals, food and cash crops • ~1000 species of plants in about 70 plant families (dicots & monocots) Pepper Tobacco • estimated global yield losses of up to $1 billion Ornamentals Potato

Trans-hemispheric introduction of viruses by invasive insect vectors Western flower thrips (Frankliniella occidentalis) • Native to the southwestern United States • Has spread through global trade in ornamental greenhouse plants from the mid-1980 s • Native to Southeast Asia • Expanded geographically in the 1970 s and 80 s due to increased application of pesticides, as well as through trade and commerce Melon thrips (Thrips palmi) Source: www. eppo. org

IMPACT: Environmental impact of onion IPM in the Philippines • Methodology: – Risk level was assigned to each active ingredient – Willingness to pay to reduce risk was assessed through farmer surveys – Risk & willingness-to-pay were combined • Expected pesticide reduction: – Thrips (50%), weeds (65%), cutworms (50%), pink root disease (25%) • Environmental benefits: Worth $150, 000 per year to the 4, 600 local residents in six Philippine villages

Microbial biodiversity to protect cacao in Ecuador • Plantain/cacao/coffee system • Frosty pod rot and witch’s broom are two serious diseases of cacao at certain altitudes • Prospecting for indigenous endophytic bacteria to confer disease resistance through inoculation • 60+ isolates collected. Screening underway. Preliminary success.