The Integrated Pest Management Innovation Lab recently promoted two workshops aimed at fighting invasive pests that threaten farmer livelihoods across the developing world. A three-day workshop, Tuta absoluta — meeting the challenge of the tomato leafminer, was held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia from Nov. 26-28, and a four-day workshop, Invasive mealybugs in Southeast Asia: ecological insights to facilitate control, was held in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam from Dec. 8-11, 2013. Both workshops drew scientists from around the world.

Sintu Alemayehu, assistant researcher at the Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research in Ambo, Ethiopia, displays a tomato leaf harboring a tomato leafminer and showing damage caused by the pest. Photo credit: Rich Mathieson

As movements of humans and pests across the globe have accelerated in recent times due to modern modes of transportation and the increased commercialization of vegetable crops, farmers in developing countries are finding themselves increasingly at a loss in dealing with new and unfamiliar pests. These invasive species are severely affecting agricultural, forest, and urban ecosystems. In the United States alone, biotic invasions are estimated to cost $137 billion dollars annually.

One of the most devastating is the tomato leafminer. This tiny moth, the size of an eyelash, is a native of Latin America, where it evolved over millennia with natural enemies that kept it in check. In 2006, the insect crossed the Atlantic and was identified in Spain. From there, it spread throughout most of Europe, North Africa, the Middle East, Senegal, Sudan, and Ethiopia.

“The purpose of the Tuta absoluta workshop was to alert Eastern African and South Asian countries of this impending problem, and to develop strategies, including biocontrol methods, to deal with it,” said Muni Muniappan, director of the USAID-funded Integrated Pest Management Innovation Lab. Representatives from the International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology, based in Nairobi, Kenya participated in this workshop.

Participants at the mealybug workshop in Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam examine mealybugs. Photo credit: Georgina Smith

The workshop in Vietnam focused on mealybugs in general, and cassava and papaya mealybugs in particular. The cassava mealybug, another native of Latin America, was inadvertently introduced to the Congo in the early 1970s, and has since spread to the rest of the cassava-growing areas of Africa. In 2009, its presence was reported in Thailand, Cambodia, and Laos; and in 2010, in Indonesia. The workshop brought together scientists from across south Asia, including Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, and southern China, together with pest management professionals from the United States, Australia, and Finland. The event was co-sponsored by the International Center for Tropical Agriculture, based in Cali, Colombia.

Both workshops included hands-on training as well as lectures, and ended with participants drawing up a set of recommendations to be distributed to policymakers and government officials.

This article was authored by the IPM Innovation Lab.