Using Pheromones and Other Safe and Sustainable Management Strategies to Reduce Losses From Insect Pests and Plant Diseases on Vegetable Legumes and Leafy Brassicas in Southeast Asia

The project target countries are Cambodia, Lao PDR and Vietnam. The project goal is to improve the livelihood of farmers and increase the availability of wholesome vegetables with reduced risk of pesticide contamination through sustainable vegetable legume and leafy brassica production systems in the target countries. The project purpose is to increase farmers’ income through adoption of sustainable pest and plant disease management strategies for yard-long bean and leafy brassicas in the target countries. This will be achieved by developing simple, economical, and environmentally sound IPM strategies to control major pests and plant diseases. New IPM component technologies will be developed and/or validated, and existing IPM technologies will be promoted for the major biotic constraints. The project will deliver the following outputs in the target countries: (1) Major insect pests and plant diseases on yard-long bean and leafy brassicas identified and their genetic diversity assessed, (2) IPM component technologies developed for major insect pests and plant diseases on yard-long bean and leafy brassicas, (3) Farm- and policy-level constraints to, and opportunities for, IPM adoption identified, (4) Newly developed IPM strategies validated and existing IPM strategies promoted against major pests and plant diseases on yard-long bean and leafy brassicas, and (5) Research and development capacity of scientists and extension personnel from collaborating national agricultural research and extension system (NARES) and farmers developed. The project will achieve the outputs through (i) characterisation of genetic diversity of target pests and plant pathogens in the target countries to provide data needed to develop effective IPM strategies, (ii) development of pheromone and kairomone lures for major pests, which will enable the trap-based pest monitoring and mass-trapping, (iii) identifying species-specific parasitoids and evaluating them together with entomopathogens and natural plant-based pesticides, (iv) identifying varieties of yard-long bean and leafy brassicas with durable resistance to major diseases and incorporating them into the IPM strategies, and (v) use of simple protective structures to reduce pathogen transmission, exclude insect pests and protect the plants from heavy rain.