Project 9: Plant protection/innovative methods for biological control - South Africa

Project leader: Ylva Hillbur

Sub-project 1: Integrated pest management in high value crops – II

Principal investigator at SLU: Ylva Hillbur, Department of Plant Protection Biology

Popular summary

The African invasive fruitfly (AIF), Bactrocera invadens. AIF was discovered in Kenya in 2003 and spread rapidly throughout subsaharan Africa, seriously compromising fruit production and export, especially of mango and citrus. An invasion in 2005 in South Africa was averted, but authorities are on high alert to avoid permanent establishment of AIF in South Africa. The species is established in countries bordering South Africa, including Moçambique. For fruitfly control an ”attract-and-kill” technique is used, in which odor baits in combination with trapping or pesticides  are used at a large scale to suppress the pest population. The current project aims to increase efficacy of baits and harness a variety of techniques, including sanitary measures in combating AIF. This is done in collaboration with the University of Pretoria and International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology, ICIPE, Kenya. The baits will be an essential tool in monitoring, management and quarantine measures against this pest.

This project is also focused on strenghtening ties with the University of Stellenbosch and the South African Sugarcane Research Institute, SASRI. SASRI represents 45 000 small scale-farmers for which sugarcane is an important cash crop. The aim is to develop odor-based control techniques for the major insect pest, the sugarcane borer Eldana saccharina.

Finally, the project will finance a workshop, SEMIO-11, which will be held in Nairobi in November 2011. SEMIO-11 aims to create and foster scientific contact and research collaborations between African and non-African researchers in the field of chemical ecology and plant protection.  

Sub-project 2: Biodiversity and ecosystem services: interaction and utility

Principal investigator at SLU: Barbara Ekbom, Department of Ecology

Popular summary

One very important question for the future is how to combine the goal of protecting biodiversity and the goal of increasing agricultural production. These two goals need not be mutually exclusive if we use scientific research to design ecological networks for the benefit of both aims. Understanding the reaction of ecosystems and the organisms within them to climate change, modification of land use, and invasion of exotic species is one of the most critical challenges for ecologists. Meeting this challenge is of utmost importance when designing crop/forest protection systems based on biological interactions.

There is a need to strengthen scientific capabilities in biodiversity research in Africa. This project will link to the East African project on biodiversity and biological control. Links to research groups at the University of Stellenbosch have been established through the SIDA Links program, with previous funding to Prof. Jan Bengtsson at the Department of Ecology, SLU.

The Department of Forest Mycology and Pathology at SLU already has a working relationship with FABI at the University of Pretoria. Prof. Jan Stenlid has worked together with scientists at FABI on a fungal-insect interaction. A wood-decaying fungus (Amylostereum areolatum) is spread by a wood wasp (Sirex noctilio) and the result is that pine, spruce, and fir trees are infected with white rot, which will eventually kill the trees. At present they are working with the genomics of the fungus as well as the physiology of the interaction with the insect and host tree. A post-doc from Pretoria is currently working in Uppsala. Jan Stenlid has a PhD student from Kenya who has done an internship at FABI, so there is scope for linking Eastern and Southern African research.

We also plan to bring partners and their students from South Africa as well as participants in our East African project to Sweden to participate in courses arranged within our PhD School in Ecology. This will provide the opportunity for a large number of PhD students from different countries to meet each other and forge links for future research.