Sustainable Management of Invasive Pests in Africa

This book presents an overview of the impact of invasive insect pests in African agriculture and their effects on productivity in Africa. It does not only describe their importance but exhibits a diversity of research findings in the field of invasive pest management, including early warning and monitoring systems for quarantine purposes, agricultural extension all the way to control strategies. Invasive species generally affect economically important crops thereby affecting the livelihood of millions of people along crop value chains. Generally, invasive species have high migratory capabilities and because of plant material exchange during trade, cannot be contained by one country. Usually, African countries react after pest has evaded and established in the country, making the cost of mitigating even more expensive. The IPM tactics and findings presented in this book are precious. The current book focusses on botanicals, semiochemicals, resistant plant varieties, biological control agents (e.g. entomopathogens, endophytes, predators and natural enemies) and pesticides. Aspects of capacity building, knowledge dissemination, socioeconomy and regional coordination have not been overlooked as they play an important role on adoption scaling. The book also presents measures that help agricultural research services to prevent or estimate the damage caused by invasive insect species and take actions. However, the first level of decision making is accurate identification of the pest and the perpetual inventory of affected crops. Bioecology of invasive pest are strongly highlighted to strengthen Integrated Pest Management Strategies.

The threat of invasive species is permanent. By writing this book, authors aimed to encourage knowledge exchange and collaboration between researchers on the continent while encouraging the establishment of a platform or a fund for preparedness and rapid response.