|
Development of Biopesticides for Grasshopper
and Locust Control in Sub-Saharan Africa
Year: 1997-2003
Grant #: USAID Africa Bureau Grant
AOT-G-00-97-00386-00
Grant Amount: $1,999,640
Location: Senegal, Ethiopia, Kenya,
France, Madagascar
Developing biopesticides for grasshoppers
and locusts using insect pathogens found
naturally in the African environment is the
goal of this project. The commercialization
of these biopesticides will provide an
environmentally-friendly alternative to
synthetic chemical pesticides in Africa.
There are five technical objectives for this
project: capacity building, promotion of
registration guidelines, product development
and improvement, production, and market
evaluation and development.
During the first five years, a germplasm
center was established at ICIPE in Kenya as
well as two new insect pathology
laboratories in Senegal and Ethiopia. Over
150 insect parasitic fungi from grasshoppers
and African soils have been isolated.
Screening of these isolates to find
candidates for biopesticide products is
being carried out at these African
laboratories. This project has supported
activities that led to the adoption of
regional biopesticide registration
guidelines for nine countries in West
Africa, and continues to support capacity
building for developing registration
frameworks in Eastern Africa.
Virginia Tech is the Management Entity for
this project, working with a consortium of
U.S. and African partners. They are: the
Biological Control Research Unit of the
Institut National de la Recherche
Agronomique (INRA), France; CERES Locustox,
Senegal; the Desert Locust Control
Organization for Eastern Africa (DLCO-EA)
Ethiopia; the Direction de la Protection des
Végétaux; ACDI VOCA, Washington DC; the
International Center for Insect Physiology
and Ecology (ICIPE) Kenya; and US Department
of Agriculture's European Biological Control
Laboratory.
|
