Overview

Sorghum, Sorghum bicolor, and pearl millet, Pennisetum glaucum, are uniquely suited for production with limited inputs of water, fertilizer, and pesticides in Africa and the U.S. Such abiotic and biotic stresses as drought and insect, disease, and weed pests limit production. Major insect pests of pearl millet and sorghum include millet head miner, sorghum midge, aphids, panicle-infesting bugs, stalk borers, and storage coleopterans that destroy yield and quality of sorghum and pearl millet for domestic use and marketing. Research objectives are to monitor and detect potential arthropod pests, understand life histories of insect pests including natural controls, determine agronomic practices to prevent damage by insect and disease pests in the field, and develop cultivars with greater yield and multiple resistances to biotic and abiotic stresses in the field and storage in Africa and the US. This project involves collaboration of a multi-disciplinary, multi-agency team of entomologists, plant breeders, pathologists, agricultural economists, extension educators, and others working for public research or educational agencies or for private industry or volunteer organizations in the U.S., Mali, Niger, Mozambique, Botswana, and South Africa. Students will be educated in entomology, integrated pest management, and the cropping systems approach. Development of host-country institutional research and educational capacities will enable better, site-specific management of insect pests. Development, dissemination, and implementation of sustainable, environmentally sound pest management technologies locally adapted for farmers and others will annually prevent millions of dollars in damage and loss in the field and storage, reduce pesticide use, conserve natural resources of soil and water without contamination by pesticides, and increase production of nutritious food and feed for domestic use and income from marketing to enable sustainable agricultural development.