Alternatives to synthetic pesticides for the management of the banana borer weevil ( Cosmopolites sordidus ) (Coleoptera: Curculioniidae)

Abstract

Bananas and plantains are important staple crops for many people in developing countries, but these crops are severely affected by biotic constraints that reduce productivity. A major biotic stress is the banana corm borer weevil (C. sordidus) whose larvae eat corm/pseudostem tissues that eventually weaken the plants and cause toppling. To manage these borer weevils, most farmers use synthetic pesticides with active ingredients from different pesticide groups. Over reliance and abusive use of pesticides result in detrimental effects on the environment and human health. These effects together with ecological backlashes such as development of resistance by the pest have led to numerous advocacies to minimize the use of these chemicals. To achieve this, there has been increasing number of researches to seek sustainable alternatives that could be used to replace these synthetic pesticides or be integrated with less toxic chemicals to effectively manage the pest. This review summarizes global research on the use of synthetic pesticides and alternative management techniques such as the use of appropriate cultural practices (e.g., clean planting materials, fallowing, mulching, intercropping, and trapping), botanical pesticides (e.g., from Solanaceae, Asteraceae, and Meliaceae), entomopathogens, predators/parasitoids, and the use of resistant crop varieties, as well as possibilities of engineering phytocystatins to produce transgenic varieties that will be harmful to weevil. The review ends with conclusions, limitations/gaps, and recommendations for future research for the different alternative options.

Synthesis (Z) vs (E) Selectivity, Antifungal Activity against Fusarium oxysporum, and Structure-Based Virtual Screening of Novel Schiff Bases Derived from l-Tryptophan

“… 1 , 2 It is known that diseases caused by F. oxysporum and the wide range of mycotoxins can contaminate agricultural products, rendering them unsuitable for human consumption. Different strategies have been developed to achieve its control, 3 the chemical control being the most broadly employed. However, the secondary effects generated by synthetic fungicides with high residuality can be even more harmful than the pathogen.…”

Impact of Natural and Hand-Assisted Pollination on Cucumber Fruit and Seed Yield

“…Pollinator decline is globally a decline in the abundance of insects and other pollinators in various ecosystems that began at the end of the twentieth century, and recent research shows that it is increasingly becoming a threat to agricultural productivity due to improper farm maintenance operations, with uncontrolled use of synthetic pesticides, which harms natural cucumber pollinators (Huang & Giray, 2012;Kluser & Peduzzi, 2007;Okolle, Ngosong, Nanganoa, & Dopgima, 2020). For successful pollination of many cucurbits, around twenty bees must visit each female flower (Inam et al, 2015).…”

“…Fruit that is malformed and tiny in size is produced when pollination is insufficient (Tuo et al, 2019). Insufficient pollination in any cucumber crop would result in a reduction in the potential production per unit area of seeds sowed (Bauer & Wing, 2010;Okolle et al, 2020;Reyes, Gergely, & Paul, 2013). As a result, artificial pollination is crucial to supplement natural pollination to increase cucumber fruit and seed output (Atibita et al, 2020;Motzke, Tscharntke, Wanger, & Klein, 2015).…”

The challenge of biological control of Cosmopolites sordidus Germar (Col. Curculionidae): A review

“…In most zones that produce banana for export, C. sordidus is controlled with insecticides (e.g. Armendariz et al, 2014;Okolle et al 2020;Shinde et al, 2015). In the French West Indies (FWI), the use of chlordecone between 1972 and 1993 caused major and persistent public health problems (Devault et al, 2018;Joachim et al, 2019).…”

“…In the French West Indies (FWI), the use of chlordecone between 1972 and 1993 caused major and persistent public health problems (Devault et al, 2018;Joachim et al, 2019). For the past three decades, control of C. sordidus in FWI has relied on integrated pest management (IPM) strategies based on the use of pitfall traps emitting an aggregation pheromone, on fallow periods that break the reproductive cycle of the pest and on in vitro-produced banana plants (Beauhaire et al, 1995;Duyck et al, 2012;Okolle et al 2020). However, these cultural practices have not yet been applied in many regions that produce export banana and are often unaffordable for small growers that produce banana and plantains for local markets.…”