Dates: September 2001-August 2004

Funding: DFID Crop Protection Programme

Countries: Bolivia, South America

Collaborators: Dr Rayne Calderon, Dr Javier Franco, PROINPA, Cochabamba, Bolivia; Dr Aziz Lagnaoui, CIP

NRI Project Leaders: David Hall & David Grzywacz

© University of Greenwich

Background

Andean potato is the principal staple food for Bolivians and also a major cash crop, grown nationally by 400,000 small-farm families. Most potato farmers are poor, and yields are low, particularly due to damage by insect pests. The most important of these are potato tuber moths and Andean potato weevils which can each cause losses of up to 500 US$/ha/year. PROINPA is developing new, non-chemical methods for control of these pests which are appropriate for use by poor farmers, and this project aims to produce new biocontrol agents based on natural pathogens and attractants.

Results
The most important tuberworm pest was until recently Phthorimaea operculella. PROINPA, in collaboration with CIP, developed a granulosis virus (PoGV) for specific control of this species, and produces a powder formulation of this, "MATAPOL", on a semi-commercial basis. However, another tuberworm, Symmetrischema tangolias, is rapidly displacing P. operculella in Bolivia and many other S. American countries, and this is not controlled by the PoGV. The virus component of this project will aim to develop a more practical liquid formulation of the PoGV, and to find a virus against S. tangolias that can then probably be formulated similarly, and even possibly as a joint formulation.
The pheromone component of the project will aim to develop semiochemical attractants for the two main weevil species in Bolivia, Premnotrypes latithorax and Rhigopsidius tucumanus. Pheromones and host-plant attractants will be investigated and the chemicals responsible will be identified and synthesised. Traps baited with the attractants could provide more effective replacements for trapping devices already in use. During the project, PROINPA will collect socioeconomic data on the importance of pests to potato growers, methods of control used and the extent of uptake of new approaches developed.