Researchers have developed an organic pesticide that can control deadly locust swarms in Africa, reducing the need to use traditional insecticides that harm the environment, a senior scientist said on Wednesday.
Last year West Africa's worst locust infestation for more than a decade wreaked havoc and worsened food shortages in some of the world's poorest nations, causing major damage to grain crops across a region where many are subsistence farmers. Such swarms could now be prevented from forming by spraying juvenile locusts with a scent, or pheromone, taken from adults, scientist Christian Borgemeister told Reuters in an interview, citing tests carried out in Sudan "with very promising results".
Spraying breaks up the groups, or bands, young locusts live in and exposes them to predators, said Borgemeister, director general of the non-profit International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology (ICIPE), based in Kenya.
"It destroys the bands. The insects are highly stressed. They suffer high natural mortality and fall victim to many natural enemies like birds," he said.
Borgemeister said the pheromone was environmentally friendly and cheap to develop, and its use alongside other, more expensive insecticides could reduce the amount of those insecticides used in efforts to kill locusts. The organic pesticide can also be used on its own, he said.
The major element in the pheromone was phenylacetonitrile (PAN), he said. "The beauty of a combination of PAN and conventional insecticide is that you reduce the concentration of the insecticide more than four-fold," Borgemeister said
"Traditionally in outbreak situations of locusts, they are controlled by insecticides. Insecticides are hazardous to the environment ... cause mortality not only in locusts but other insects," Borgemeister said.
MORE TRIALS:
His organisation is testing the pesticide with support from the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation, the US Agency for International Development and the Swedish International Development Co-operation Agency.
Borgemeister said the pesticide had been registered for testing in Sudan and he planned to do more extensive trials that could enable it to be authorised for use in about a year's time.
"We hope that in a year from now we will be able to provide PAN (for public use) and to recommend PAN in combination with either a soft dose of insecticide or a significant reduced dose of Green Muscle fungus (a biopesticide) for locust control," Borgemeister said.
ICIPE plans to comission a company to manufacture the pesticide when it is approved for public use. "We're developing something, and then we are handing it over as a public good," Borgemeister said.