Biological Pest Control Saved Coconut Farmers in Asia Billions of Dollars

Biological insect pest control using pests' natural enemies saved farmers in the Pacific and Asia billions of dollars. This is the finding of a study conducted by researchers from the University of Queensland.

Dr. Kris Wyckhuys from the UQ School of Biological Sciences defined biological control as releasing an exotic and natural enemy of a pest in its native habitat. The purpose is to eradicate or reduce the pest population.

According to Wyckhuys, scientists choose a co-evolved and beneficial insect with great care to act as the control. This species is most effective in eradicating pests and having the least possibility of creating ecological imbalance and upset.

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Wyckhuys and his research team published a new study in the journal Nature Ecology and Evolution. They assessed various records of effective biological control applications, which managed a total of 43 insect pests in the feed, fiber, and food crops of the region of Asia-Pacific for more than a hundred years.

They discovered that such controls assisted in regulating the threats of invasive pests in many important food crops like coconut, breadfruit, and banana.

Biological Controls Save Money

In the assessment by Wyckhuys' research team, they showed that the use of biological controls saves Asian farmers roughly 20.1 to 26.8 billion Australian or 14.6 to 19.5 billion US dollars each year.

According to Wyckhuys, that is a lot of financial savings, especially compared to other agricultural control methods. He points out the example of the Asian Green Revolution in the 1960s; during this time, the local rice production output tripled. However, it also saw the massive use of chemical fertilizers, pesticides, and other agrochemicals combined with innovative cultivation methods.

The significant effect of the Green Revolution, says Wyckhuys, can be attributed to rice varieties that have higher yields. In Asia, it provided a revenue of $4.3 billion each year.

According to Michael Furlong, an associate professor at the University of Queensland, acknowledging the biological control's effectiveness can provide for a better, more resilient, and higher profits for agriculture worldwide. He says that biological control provides poor farmers with significant opportunities.

Biological Pest Control in the Coconut Industry

Furlong adds that biological controls promote prosperity and growth in rural areas with non-rice, poor, and marginal planting environments.

He cited the example of Aspidiotus destructor, more commonly known as coconut scale, which threatened the productivity, economy, and food security of many countries. During the early 1900s, coconut scales destroyed the copra, banana, and coconut industries in Fiji.

In the year 1928, the introduction of parasitic wasps and Trinidad lady beetles caused almost instant results. Within nine months, coconut scales stopped becoming a problem for crops in every major island in the country. After only 18 months, the pest became so scarce that they can hardly be found anywhere.

Such innovative pest control approaches, coupled with progressively improving science, help secure global food supply, improve farmers and the agricultural sector's lives, and take care of natural biodiversity.

The researchers hope that their study improves future programs to minimize or eradicate pests, maintain the ecosystem's resilience and balance, and sustainably increase global food production.

The use of biological insect pest control can be a big boon to agriculture, as natural enemies of pests not only save money for farmers in the Asia Pacific and other parts of the world but also conserve the environment and keep it healthy from harmful pesticides.

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Tags Agriculture , Nature , Biology