Farmer Research Network: assessments of botanical pesticides to augment above and below ground ecosystem services for crop resilience
Improving food security in Malawi and Tanzania through the optimization of plant-based pest management through Farmer Research Networks (FRNs)
The overall goal of the project is to improve food security in Malawi and Tanzania.
This will be achieved through the development and optimization of plant-based pest management technologies that are simple, effective, reliable, safe and economic.
These technologies will be appropriate for the control of field and storage insect pests of beans, pigeon pea, cowpeas and other legumes, as well as commercially and nutritionally important crops grown by small holder farmers.
The technologies will be based on widely distributed, and easily cultivated, plant species such as Tephrosia vogelii, Dysphania ambrosioides, Tithonia diversifolia, Lippia javanica, Bidens pilosa, Lantana camara, Vernonia amygdalina and Tagetes minuta.
In carrying out this broader activity, we plan to build technical capacity by supporting post graduate students at partner institutes to carry out a range of lab, field and farm based research which cuts across disciplines of natural product chemistry, entomology, chemical ecology, insect behaviour, in addition to experimental design, data collection, statistical analysis, working with farmers and understanding benefits and trade-offs of adopting plant based approaches to pest management.
A second goal is to help understand the impact of using pesticidal plants on wider ecosystem services and how their use affects non-target organisms (pollinators, parasitoids, predators). This will establish their suitability for integration into agro-ecological intensification programmes.
We are proposing to further develop actions with FRNs at the core of PP research.
Our plan is to continue to grow the FRN and facilitate the nascent ideas of knowledge sharing and commercialisation among farmers.
We will expand the FRN activities to tackle problems identified by farmers including: 1) fall army worm on cereal crops; 2) plant pathogens 3) soil pathogens, nematodes and insects; and 4) above and below ground interactions between pests and predators and increased crop resilience e.g., how application of plant extracts enhances soil nutrients and biodiversity as well as their use as cover crops and green mulches to increase organic matter.
Dr Angela Mkindi (Nelson Mandela African Institution of Science and Technology, Tanzania).
Dr Yolice Tembo (Lunyangwa University of Agriculture of Natural Resources and Agricultural Research – LUANAR, Malawi)
Dr Steve Belmain (Natural Resources Institute, University of Greenwich, UK).
McKnight Foundation – Collaborative Crops Research Program
Tembo, Y., Mkindi, A., Mkenda, P., Mpumi, Mwanauta, R., Stevenson P.C., Ndakidemi, P. & Belmain S.R. (2018).
Pesticidal Plant Extracts Improve Yield and Reduce Insect Pests on Legume Crops without Harming Beneficial Arthropods.
Frontiers in Plant Science, 9: 1425.
Stevenson, P.C., Farrell, I., Green P.W.C., Mvumi, B., Brankin A., Belmain, S.R. (2018)
Novel Agmatine Derivatives in Maerua edulis With Bioactivity Against Callosobruchus maculatus, a Cosmopolitan Storage Insect Pest.
Frontiers in Plant Science, 9: 1506.
Mkindi, A., Mpumi, N., Tembo, Y., Stevenson, P.C., Ndakidemi, P.A., Mtei, M., Machunda, R., & Belmain, S.R. (2017).
Invasive weeds with pesticidal properties as potential new crops.
Industrial Crops and Products, 110: 113-122.