Economic impact of exotic insect pests in Brazilian agriculture

Abstract

Agriculture represents one of the major strengths of the economic sector in Brazil. The need to avoid economic losses because of insect pest populations is one of the greatest challenges faced by this sector. Insect pests have caused annual losses of US$12.0 billion to the Brazilian economy, of which approximately US$1.6 billion are because of exotic pest species. Furthermore, exotic insect species often show greater potential to cause harm than native species. In Brazil, since the late nineteenth century, 24 species of insect pests have been introduced into the country, and they have caused significant economic losses. Many of these species, including Bemisia tabaci, Hypothenemus hampei, Ceratitis capitata, Oryzophagus oryzae and Anthonomus grandis, are major crop pests, and they were accidentally introduced during trading of agricultural products. In this review, we present an overview of Brazilian agriculture, a brief history of the introduction of insect pests in the country and the Brazilian legislation on agricultural defence, and we estimate the economic losses caused to the Brazilian economy by the main insect pest species that have been introduced into Brazil over the last 112 years.

Soybean Stem Fly, Melanagromyza sojae (Diptera: Agromyzidae), in the New World: detection of high genetic diversity from soybean fields in Brazil

“…Brazilian agriculture has had a long history of exotic pest incursions that significantly affected agricultural production, with increasing frequencies of invasive agricultural pest incursions observed since the start of 1900s (Oliveira et al, 2013). Recent invaders, with significant impact on the agricultural sector in Brazil and neighboring countries, included the Asian Soybean Rust Phakosphora pachyrhizi, the spider mite, Schizotetranychus hindustanicus, the invasive whitefly, Bemisia tabaci, MEAM1 (previously known as 'B biotype'), and the Old World cotton bollworm, Helicoverpa armigera.…”

Barcoding the food chain: from Sanger to high-throughput sequencing

“…Annual costs of damage from insect pests are estimated at $12bn in Brazil (Oliveira et al 2013), and $14.4bn in the USA (Pimentel et al 2005). The best predictor of the number of invasive alien species within a country is its degree of international trade, indicating that damage from invasive pests is likely to increase as a result of the globalised agri-food supply chain (Westphal et al 2008).…”

Crescimento e nutrição mineral de Urochloa arrecta

“…Além da competição por recursos do ambiente, como água, luz e nutrientes, U. arrecta pode atuar como hospedeira alternativa do coleóptero Blissus leucopterus (Oliveira et al, 2013), inseto-praga que ataca gramíneas e algumas eudicotiledôneas (Kissmann & Groth, 2007;Baker et al, 2008); além de ser tóxica a animais de pastejo, como bovinos e ovinos, quando ingerida em grande quantidade, por tempo prolongado e consecutivo (Kissmann & Groth, 2007;Costa et al, 2008). Considerando a importância de U. arrecta como planta daninha, há necessidade de estudos básicos a respeito da biologia dessa espécie, envolvendo aspectos relacionados a reprodução, crescimento, desenvolvimento, exigência em nutrientes, resposta aos sistemas de controle e outros, visando obter informações que possam auxiliar no seu manejo.…”