Some insects like eating vegetables, but most consumers don’t like to share theirs. Protecting vegetable crops from insect pests remains a huge challenge for farmers; many often over-apply chemical pesticides to reduce the risk of crop loss and deliver unblemished produce to the market.
Correctly identifying pests and diseases is the first step in safe control.
These beans mean business and better nutrition for farmers and consumers in Cambodia and Lao PDR.
Enterprising vegetable growers demonstrate skills and knowledge gained through two WorldVeg projects.
The Vietnam Academy of Agricultural Sciences (VAAS) organized a field day on integrated pest management (IPM) under WorldVeg’s Attraction in Action project, funded by BMZ/GIZ.
On 17 March 2017, Thomas Dubois, Regional Director, WorldVeg Eastern and Southern Africa Tanzania, and Henry Wainwright, managing director and founder of RealIPM, signed a hosting agreement that will see both organizations work closer together to combat pests and diseases through biological control.
Forty-four farmers including 20 women from Phaxang, Nadao, Phatang and Soksay villages gathered at Phaxang village in Kasi district of Vientiane Province, Lao PDR on 6 December 2016 to see the effectiveness of integrated pest management (IPM) strategies based on biopesticides on yard-long bean and vegetable brassicas. -- MORE --
This project designs alternative options for insect pest management and will set the stage for partners to promote and popularize these options.
Insect pheromones can be used to monitor, mass-trap, and/or disrupt the mating process of insect pests. Such traps are highly effective in reducing the damage and yield losses caused by monophagous insects such as eggplant fruit and shoot borer (Leucinodes orbonalis), as demonstrated in the Indo-Gangetic Plains of South Asia by the World Vegetable Center.
Seed kernel extracts of China berry (Melia azedarach) against oriental fruit fly (Bactrocera dorsalis) and tomato fruit borer (Helicoverpa armigera), and commercial neem formulations containing azadirachtin (Biofree-I® and Thai neem 111®) against the legume pod borer (Maruca vitrata) were tested in Taiwan and Thailand to confirm their effects on oviposition, feeding, growth and development. Various extracts from M. azedarach seed kernels significantly reduced the oviposition of B. dorsalis and the efficacy was similar to Biofree-I®. The green drupe and dry seed kernel extracts of M. azedarach substantially increased larval mortality, and reduced successful pupation, pupal weight, adult emergence, fecundity and egg hatch of H. armigera larvae. Commercial neem formulations exhibited adverse morphogenic effects on various biological parameters of M. vitrata, but they did not reduce oviposition and egg hatch. M. azedarach extracts and commercial neem formulations can be employed together for the sustainable management of B. dorsalis, H. armigera and M. vitrata.