Mexican Biological Control Congress

The 22nd Congress of the Mexican Biological Control Society (MBCS) was held from 28-29 October 1999 at the Postgraduate College in Texcoco, Mexico, under the theme `Biological Control, the Key Tool for Pest Control in the New Millennium'. Prior to the Congress a 3-day lecture course was held together with practical workshops on hymenopteran identification; mass production of entomopathogenic fungi; and design of entomophagous arthropod rearing systems. In addition to the usual posters and presentations, manufacturers of biological products displayed their wares and a biocontrol quiz for students was organized. Themes for papers included Biotechnology and Genetics; Biosystematics and Taxonomy; Weed and Pathogen Control; Veterinary Biocontrol; Mass Rearing and Quality Control; Biology, Ecology and Behaviour; Education and Technology Transfer; Evaluation and Impact; and Integrated Management.

Most of the Congress sessions were technical but one session focussed on `Farmers' Views and Experience in the Use of Biocontrol Agents', coordinated by Raquel Alatorre of the IFIT Postgraduate College and the Neotropical Section of the International Organization for Biological Control (IOBC). The Society has done preliminary consultation with farmers to get feedback on biocontrol agent (BCA) products but recognises the need to develop methods for BCA release and application strategies which are as rigorous as those for laboratory production. Despite a large number of small private sector enterprises in Mexico, dominated by researchers, there are no national guidelines for release and evaluation strategies. The Society is keen to develop these as this is the point where widespread use of BCAs will succeed or fail. Farmers from nearby states with whom MBCS members collaborate were invited to this session to share their opinions with researchers. Mr Jesus Rizo represented a smallholders' association growing maize, sorghum and chickpeas. Through collaboration with local research and extension staff, Mr Rizo had tried a Metarhizium biopesticide for soil pests, notably white grubs, and tried biofertilizers. University staff provided these products at subsidized cost to encourage their use. Mr Rizo had been conscious for some time of the risks to human health and the environment of excessive use of pesticides, as well as experiencing pest resistance to common insecticides. His motivation for involvement also came from the increasing cost of agrochemicals as well as being naturally curious. Local beekeepers whose hives had been affected by pesticides were those who first alerted him to the dangers. He described how his personal interest in natural control was sparked by a technician who took him out one night to watch white grub adults emerging from the soil and he was so impressed by the huge quantities that he agreed to try out these new methods. However, he admitted that the challenge remains to motivate other farmers to try out biological control. Other BCA programmes promote gradual integration of biocontrol, encouraging local producers' committees to set percentage adoption targets for biological and chemical methods.

Several large-scale growers of vegetables (strawberries, tomatoes and asparagus) spoke about their experiences with BCAs. One had calculated detailed input/output budgets for his fields to get fellow association members interested, as the only way to attract them is to show the economic savings. These growers felt that demonstration plots are the best way to interest others and then generate demand for BCAs by convincing association committees. There is a lot of misunderstanding about BCAs; for instance, many farmers think that mycopesticides will not work unless there is a lot of rain. Quality control and customer service is also key. Another factor in low adoption levels is the linking of credit available to association members with agrochemical and seed suppliers. Some farmers who had used BCAs were forced to stop using these products in order not to jeopardize their production credit. Everyone agreed that biocontrol needs to promote itself as aggressively as the agrochemical industry and several farmers suggested that traditional commercial suppliers of farm inputs should be persuaded to start distributing alternative products. Due to increasing export restrictions on residue levels, there is growing interest in non-chemical alternatives among many large-scale farmers. Technicians felt the most useful support the MBCS should offer is quality control standards and more promotion of IPM, rather than letting farmers think that biocontrol alone will solve all their pest problems. There should also be experience sharing between farmers who collaborate on trials and with new farmers.

The session concluded with the following recommendations:

• Practical demonstration and visualization of results is the best method to convince farmers.
• Subsidies are an important factor in increasing interest and uptake.
• Biocontrol is a key tool in IPM but not the only one.
• There is a need to look at the role of native natural enemies and their possible displacement under augmentative biocontrol.
• MBCS should support the rapid legislation of quality control.

A special symposium was held on 'Models of Participatory Research and Technology Transfer with Emphasis on Biological Control'. Leobardo Jimenez from the Postgraduate College's Centre for Rural Development and Bernardino Mata from the Rural Sociology Department at the University of Chapingo discussed the sociopolitical context for farmer-centred extension and the failure of much of Mexican agricultural research and extension to meet the needs of the smallholder and indigenous sector. Ann Braun from CIAT (International Center for Tropical Agriculture) outlined the principles and experience of the Local Agricultural Research Committees (CIALs) in Colombia and other Latin countries and Falguni Guharay from the CATIE (Centro Agronómico Tropical de Investigación y Educación) IPM programme in Nicaragua discussed the institutional processes in farmer-led research. Stephanie Williamson from CABI Bioscience discussed challenges for farmer participation in coffee research and extension. Christiane Junghans and Ramon Jarquin talked about the ECOSUR (the College of the Southern Border) academic links programme with rural communities and the challenges in changing farmer and researchers' attitudes and making academic research more relevant to production needs. The programme is now running pilot participatory research activities in indigenous methods for whitegrub management in maize [See `Training News', this issue]; use of botanical preparations for control of varroasis disease in beehives; control of maize stemborers with baculovirus; and coffee berry borer IPM. Juan Barrera presented a proposal from ECOSUR for pilot development of farmer participatory IPM training in coffee and maize in Mexico which aims to combine the learning of agroecological principles as practised in Farmer Field Schools with action research for specific problem solving, as promoted by CIALs.

The Congress Proceedings, mainly in Spanish, draw together papers, keynote speeches, poster and symposium abstracts.

Contact: Dr Nina Bárcenas Ortega, Colegio de Posgraduados-IREGREP, Montecillo, Texcoco, Edo. Mex, Mexico 56230
Email: barcenas@colpos.mx
Fax: +52 595 20262
Society website: http://www.controlbiologico.org.mx/

By: Stephanie Williamson, CABI Bioscience

Galaxy of Talent Tackles Cocoa Disease

Cocoa is a handsome crop and even its worst diseases have attractive names: 'Witches' Broom' and `Frosty Pod'. But although a chocoholic could be forgiven for thinking these are seasonal chocolate novelties, to the cocoa farmers of Brazil they spell ruin, unless the cocoa sector can come up with some solutions quickly.

Bahia State in Brazil is the principal cocoa-growing region of the Americas. An agaric fungal disease was first noticed there in 1989, and since then witches' broom (Crinipellis perniciosa) has contributed to a halving of cocoa production. But some ten years after the disease was identified, and after a plethora of consultants, there is still no clear integrated approach to its management. For example: chemical, biological and cultural (pruning) methods have been tried, but there appears to be little idea of how these may interact with one another, or even the most appropriate timing of interventions. The problem currently affects over three million people of the Bahia Region, covering 600,000 ha of arable land, and could potentially have a devastating environmental impact if the traditional Cabruca cultivation system of growing cocoa under the original forest canopy should disappear.

It was against this sense of crisis for future cocoa production in Bahia that a witches' broom meeting was organized in Ilheus, Brazil on 21-24 February 2000, funded and organized by M&M Mars. The meeting was attended by over 50 participants from 19 organizations, including researchers and farmers and representatives of government, industry, NGOs and development agencies. It aimed to review research and familiarize all participants with work in progress on efforts to solve the witches' broom problem. M&M Mars was very much a driving force behind the meeting, and made a very professional effort to overcome some of the previous lack of communication between research organizations. The meeting looked for ways to initiate cooperative research, develop a collaborative approach and set in motion action plans to build on the activities being conducted by CEPLAC (Commisão do Executiva do Plano da Lavoura Cacaueira) in Brazil and other institutes worldwide, working toward a model of sustainability. This model of collaboration and planning, although initially applied to the witches' broom problem in Bahia, could be used to tackle other global cocoa disease problems.

CEPLAC hosted the first day at its site near Itabuna. Each participant was given the opportunity to air their hopes for the meeting. From this energetic discussion, four major themes evolved: Agroecology, Biocontrol, Genetics and Breeding, and Communication/Collaboration and teams were formed to focus attention and strengthen research in these areas. Each team developed an action plan, prioritizing at least four activities for the next six months and identifying for each activity: 'What needs to be done,' 'Why?', `Who is the owner?', `Who is doing the work?', `Who needs to be kept informed?', `People resources,' 'Money resources,' and 'Timing'. The process of sharing information and making plans laid the foundation of trust and familiarity within the teams that will help them carry forward their work. The Biocontrol group ended their session with a demonstration of new sprayer technology by CABI Bioscience. Equipment was left at Almirante Center (M&M Mars) and CEPLAC for further testing and analysis. Major activities identified by for each team were:

Agroecology

• Evaluate farmers' tolerant plant material.
• Develop techniques to multiply good material.
• Create a decision support model for researchers and farmers.
• Develop and evolve a new paradigm for agricultural change.
• Find and evaluate plants for sustainable agroforestry systems.
• Help establish a pilot for a micro-economic lending programme.

Genetics and Breeding

• Apply DNA fingerprinting techniques to 300 accessions at Almirante Center.
• Apply DNA fingerprinting techniques to 1000 accessions at CEPLAC.
• Identify and map witches' broom resistance genes for Scavina 6 and 12 and produce a complementary DNA library for the Expressed Sequence Tags (EST) project.

Biocontrol

• Ecology: predict behaviour of Trichoderma in the field.
• Field application studies to optimize Trichoderma delivery systems.
• Search and screen field materials to find new biocontrol agents.

Communication/Collaboration

• Distribute comprehensive email list of participants.
• Set up WWW (web) based repository of searchable data, information and knowledge related to witches' broom disease (which could be expanded to other cocoa diseases).
• Set the WWW based cocoa research bulletin board to support collaboration within and between the teams.
• Provide links to other cocoa and scientific sites of interest.

A gap analysis highlighted items for further consideration by the teams: how to involve all stakeholders (particularly small farmers), how to optimize extension activities and technology transfer, and how to acquire needed resources quickly. Each team will consider additional activities to fill those gaps.

Field trips were also made to small farmer-run biocontrol plots around the Una Biological Reserve area. CEPLAC have developed a sprayable product, `Tricovab', based on the recently described mycoparasitic fungus Trichoderma stromaticum, and the application of this was demonstrated. The farmers have embraced the technology, although it is too early to determine if it is having significant impact. There was also a tour of the Una Ecopark, a private forest reserve bordering the Una Biological Reserve, to see how a well-preserved Atlantic Forest can offer lucrative economic alternatives for the region. The Una Ecopark was created by the Institute for Socio-Environmental Studies of Southern Bahia (IESB), in partnership with Conservation International of Brazil The organizations are also doing research on regional biodiversity and offering agroforestry extension assistance to farmers and communities to help save key forest fragments. The Cabruca cocoa system is seen as a key factor in the conservation and preservation of the ecoparks and acts as corridors between them.

Perhaps the greatest achievement of the meeting was the formation of collaborative teams. Two years ago most of the researchers in attendance were not even on each other's `radar screens', and by the end of 1999 they were fragmented, at best. Now they are forming into research teams with action plans covering the next six months. The stages that the teams will go through as they evolve from an initial state of individual contribution to that of effective team collaboration and on to high performance state were discussed - they have the potential to develop into an exciting WWW-based collaborative venture. A set of team building activities may be included in the agenda for the next general meeting in September.

There are other promising developments. New players such as USDA (US Department of Agriculture) geneticists and plant breeders have entered the scene and they will help to assess South and Central American germplasm collections for resistance to diseases. Work on cocoa endophytes, although at an early stage, also looks a promising avenue and is being investigated as a long-term strategy for control of cocoa diseases.

It was argued that it may only be a matter of time before witches' broom reaches other cocoa-growing countries, in the Old World, for example, but it was also pointed out that witches' broom will probably be followed by other diseases such as frosty pod, and that could make witches' broom seem a mere hiccup.

Carol Knight (American Cocoa Research Institute - ACRI), representing the cocoa and chocolate industry, acknowledged the cooperation and resources provided by USDA, CABI Bioscience, Conservation International, IESB, CEPLAC, UESC (State University of Santa Cruz), OCP (Organic Commodity Project), and USAID (US Agency for International Development), as well as the leadership provided by M&M Mars and Almirante Center on behalf of the industry. She suggested that the teams created during the meeting could work in concert with ACRI's International Sustainable Cocoa Program.

In his final remarks, Raul Valle, Director of CEPLAC heralded the meeting as a positive step forward in undertaking co-operative research to find a solution for witches' broom. He also noted that a pending Memorandum of Understanding between USDA and CEPLAC would cover collaborative research in genetics and biocontrol. He expressed the hope that concrete actions and results would follow as a result of this meeting.

Contact: Roy Bateman, CABI Bioscience UK Centre (Ascot), Silwood Park, Buckhurst Road, Ascot SL5 7TA, UK
Email: r.bateman@cabi.org
Fax: +44 1491 829123

This technical aspects of this report are based on a conference report by Vince Arecchi.
See the CocoaResearcher website: http://www.cocoaresearcher.com