Innovative Solutions to New Invaders: Managing Agricultural Pests, Diseases and Weeds Under Climate Change
2008
Files
Details
Title
Innovative Solutions to New Invaders: Managing Agricultural Pests, Diseases and Weeds Under Climate Change
Issue Date
Sep 03 2008
Publication Type
Conference Paper/ Presentation
DOI and Other Identifiers
10.22004/ag.econ.124515
Record Identifier
https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/124515
PURL Identifier
http://purl.umn.edu/124515
Language
English
Total Pages
7
Note
Global agriculture is struggling to keep pace with
increasing demands for food as human population
increases and food preferences alter. Changes in
temperature, greenhouse gas concentrations,
precipitation patterns and radiation further
challenge farmers. Insect and nematode pests,
plant diseases and weeds are major constraints to
crop production. Developing models to project the
potential distribution and abundance of a pest
species under various climate change scenarios is
essential, and the Australian scientific community
has been at the forefront with the development of
CLIMEX and its application to modelling some of
the world’s worst weed species, such as the pantropical
Asteraceae, Chromolaena odorata. CABI
is developing tools to assist farmers in coping with
these challenges. In West Africa, C. odorata
promotes other crop pests, such as the
polyphagous Zonocerus variegatus grasshopper.
CABI has developed an efficacious
mycopesticide, a formulation of Metarhizium
anisopliae var. acridum, to prevent threats from
increasing grasshopper and locust populations.
Climate change models project increased
precipitation in parts of the humid tropics. In
Central Africa, this will exacerbate yield losses,
such as to fungal ‘blackpod’ disease on cocoa.
Farmers currently use contact fungicides, but this
strategy will become less efficacious with
increasing rainfall. CABI and partners are
identifying endophytes, such as Trichoderma, as
biocontrol agents to deal with this threat.