Fourteen years after it was first introduced, the biopesticide Green Muscle®, which uses the fungus Metarhizium anisopliae to kill pests, is still effectively targeting invasive locusts that threaten African farmlands.
Cassava green mite first came to Africa in the 1970s from South America, wreaking havoc on cassava farms and reducing yields by up to 80%. Read how a natural enemy helped tackle the menace.
The water hyacinth and other aquatic weeds, exotic species introduced to Africa, became pests when they started clogging waterways and water bodies. Fortunately, natural enemies or biocontrol agents were found by IITA to attack these pests.
A biopesticide from a fungus, Beauveria bassiana, developed by IITA is helping farmers in Benin go back to cabbage production after the diamondback moth ravaged their farms.
Information on the banana genome and molecular tools to map traits are lacking. IITA is mapping and characterizing new molecular markers for use in banana breeding and genetics.
Manuele Tamò suggests that based on previous studies, the negative unintended effects of transformed crops on natural enemies and biodiversity are far less than those caused by repeated applications of synthetic pesticides.
Read about the award-winning approach that IITA extension specialists have adopted to strengthen knowledge of cocoa farmers on integrated crop and pest management techniques and practices.
This article discusses how endophyte-based technology is helping commercialize banana production in East Africa, and how partnerships with various public and private entities have contributed to the success of the R4D approach.
Last August, the international community came together in Tanzania to establish a framework for combating the worst enemies of African banana in years—banana Xanthomonas wilt and banana bunchy top disease.
Fourteen years after it was first introduced, the biopesticide Green Muscle®, which uses the fungus Metarhizium anisopliae to kill pests, is still effectively targeting invasive locusts that threaten African farmlands.
A partnership of scientists lead by IITA, CIRAD, and Africa Rice are studying how weaver ants, the most ancient biocontrol agent on record, can protect economically important crops, such as mango, from the invasive fruit fly.
The “father of biocontrol”, Peter Neuenschwander, joined IITA’s biocontrol project against the cassava mealybug in 1983, and retired in 2003. In this interview, he bares his mind on the contribution of biocontrol and strategies on how Africa can check invasive pests.
The president of one of the strongest crop networks in Nigeria, Pastor O.A. Adenola, talks about the need for stakeholders to join forces against aflatoxin spread and other issues.
IITA Virologist James Legg explains the progress of research on understanding the deadly relationship between the whitefly vectors and the viruses that are causing the destructive cassava mosaic and cassava brown streak diseases.