Three decades of R4D at IITA have shown the effectiveness and sustainability of biological control combined with other approaches for managing insect pests. These biocontrol practices and technologies provide subsistence farmers in sub-Saharan Africa with solutions that are sometimes their only safety net.

Three decades of research and development at IITA have shown the continuing effectiveness and sustainability of biological control in combination with other approaches for managing insect pests.

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.

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.

Sunday Ekesi is a research entomologist from Nigeria working at the International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology (icipe). He is currently leading a continent-wide initiative on the African fruit flies that threaten the production and export of fruits and vegetables.

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.

Rachid Hanna is an entomologist who joined IITA-Bénin in 1998 to lead the cassava green mite (CGM) biological control program. He recently relocated to IITA-Cameroon and has been entrusted in helping to rebuild the research program with a new focus.

Developing countries lose billions of dollars in trade annually to aflatoxin contamination in foods. Worst still, the contamination endangers the health of millions of people in the region. But the good news is that IITA has developed a biocontrol product (aflasafe) to tackle this problem. Ranajit Bandyophadhay relates the journey that led to the development of aflasafe.