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TEAMwork against Leafy Spurge - Part 2

"Got a bug for that?"

A few short years ago that question, and the questioner, a frustrated area rancher, would have caught the noxious weed researcher by complete surprise, but today, thanks to the spectacular accomplishments of millions of Aphthona spp. flea beetles, the inquiry has become increasingly routine.

The weed-eating beetles have been distributed in the USA through a unique, biologically based research and demonstration programme aimed at curbing the problematic Eurasian perennial leafy spurge (Euphorbia esula complex) [see also BNI 22(1), 1N-2N (March 2001), TEAMwork against leafy spurge]. TEAM Leafy Spurge (TLS) is credited with much of the expanded interest shown by ranchers and public and private land managers in biological control as the cornerstone of a successful weed management programme.

TLS was first formed in 1997 when the US Department of Agriculture's Agricultural Research Service joined forces with its sister agency the USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service in the first area-wide, integrated pest management programme targeting a noxious weed.

This biologically based IPM programme focuses on researching and demonstrating effective, affordable and ecologically sustainable leafy spurge management techniques. The 6-year, cooperative programme stresses teamwork, resulting in a network of partnerships between the two USDA agencies, land grant universities and numerous other local, state and federal entities. Fields of study have included, in part, classical biological control, multi-species grazing and judicious herbicide use. In addition, TEAM Leafy Spurge also stresses information and education, two components vital to ensuring the continued application of successful biocontrol and other IPM strategies developed under the programme.

Its efforts have been well-rewarded. Not only has the programme successfully demonstrated dramatic reductions in spurge densities across wide areas, but its education efforts have garnered it the top Technology Transfer Award for 2002 from the USDA's scientific research arm, the Agricultural Research Service, for Outstanding Effort. In a ceremony at ARS national headquarters in February 2003 TEAM members were recognized for their efforts in "spreading the word" about ways to combat leafy spurge, and more importantly for equipping its customers with the tools needed to do the job.

In particular, recognition was given to TLS efforts in the widespread distribution of more than 48 million leafy spurge flea beetles to ranchers and land managers throughout much of the Western USA, enough flea beetles to establish 16,000 new release sites. Many of the insects were distributed during the programme's numerous field and demonstration days, all of which included `hands on' instruction in flea beetle collection and redistribution with additional information provided on how to use them successfully and combine them effectively with other IPM techniques.

In addition to providing the living tools needed to effectively and affordably manage leafy spurge, TLS was also honoured for its education efforts, as well as development of more than 20 informational products including brochures, reports, CD-ROMs, news articles, a 30-minute documentary aired regionally on US Public Television stations and a series of 'how-to' IPM manuals that have proven wildly successful with their intended audience. The first, a 24-page, full colour offering entitled 'Biological control of leafy spurge', has been the most sought after, with more than 40,000 manuals distributed in 27 American states and four Canadian provinces. But it's not the only popular outreach product. More than 10,000 'how-to' manuals on multi-species grazing have also been distributed, along with several thousand copies of the newest offering 'Herbicide control of leafy spurge'.

The 30-minute documentary entitled 'Purging spurge: corralling an ecological bandit', developed by TLS in cooperation with Prairie Public Broadcasting in Fargo, North Dakota, aired regionally in June of last year and is now being offered nationwide in the USA. It was also nominated for several broadcast awards. TLS efforts have also been featured in other broadcast programming including a BBC documentary entitled 'Aliens from Planet Earth: Earth report', and Public Broadcasting's `Living on Earth' series in the USA.

But the true measure of success for TLS has been the customer uptake of its researcher-developed IPM technologies. One testimonial, from South Dakota rancher Larry Nelson, illustrates the point: "The ranchers are feeling better about the options that they now have against leafy spurge. TEAM Leafy Spurge has been a big plus for area producers. As of 3-4 years ago we knew nothing about biocontrol... TEAM Leafy Spurge has done a remarkable job of getting the word out. People in this area are now seeing the benefits of an IPM approach."

That acceptance of IPM strategies outlined by TLS is borne out in a new report issued by North Dakota State University researchers Nancy Hodur, Larry Leistritz and Dean Bangsund. The report was designed to measure how successful the TLS programme has been in reaching its target audience and in influencing their weed control plans. Key findings in the report, which included surveys of individual ranchers, and public and private land managers, include the following:

• Noxious weeds were increasingly seen as an important problem by both ranchers and land managers.
• Both groups reported extensive and growing use of biocontrol and the IPM approach, as a complement to previously lone, herbicide treatment programmes.
• TLS appeared to successfully influence landowners' weed control plans, particularly with regard to biological control. Eighty per cent of private land managers, approximately 60% of public land managers, and 42% of ranchers indicated TLS had influenced their plans to use biocontrol, in part because many of the constraints to its use cited in earlier studies had moderated. Those constraints were identified as not having access to sufficient insects and lack of knowledge in how to use them. In the latest survey the number of land managers who viewed these two issues as significant had dropped from 30-40% in 1998 and 1999 to under 8% in 2002.
• TLS also appeared to reach a substantial percentage of its target audience, with one-third of ranchers and 70% of private and public land managers attending at least one TLS event or demonstration site, and indicating that they were pleased with the information received.
• And finally, 92% of local decision makers, 71% of public land managers and 70% of ranchers supported extending funding for the programme, and a large majority of respondents believe the TEAM Leafy Spurge model would be applicable to other problem weeds.

Now, as the TEAM Leafy Spurge programme winds down, many participants are finding that their adoption of tools developed under TLS has led to dramatic reductions in spurge infestations in the field. In fact, researchers believe that if the same integrated management plans are carried out over even larger areas, leafy spurge could ultimately be reduced to an incidental weed in North America. A summary of some TLS findings to date follows.

Biocontrol

Flea beetle establishment improved dramatically at all demonstration sites over the course of the project, with 100% establishment at 101 release sites in the state of North Dakota. Across all four states in the programme, black flea beetle (A. lacertosa) populations increased their numbers exponentially (as much as 8-fold) in the first 3 years following release. Resulting canopy levels declined from averages of about 40% to 5% or less and reductions in infested acreage ranged from a norm of about 50% over a 3-year period to 80% in North Dakota through 2002. In addition, TLS researchers demonstrated that insects combined with multi-species grazing by sheep produced the best control over the shortest time, while biological control combined with fall herbicides provided the most economical and long-term control of leafy spurge. Together, the findings clearly demonstrate the advantages to be gained from adoption of biological control combined with other IPM measures.

Multi-Species Grazing

Combining sheep with A. lacertosa led to the control of between 90% and 99% of the 453 acres [~185 ha] infested with leafy spurge studied under the programme. Those reductions were achieved without negative impacts to cow or sheep average daily gains, clearly demonstrating the economic and environmental advantages of combining these two biologically based IPM strategies.

Herbicides

Improved herbicides, applied at smaller rates, are gaining greater acceptance, cutting the amount of chemical released into the environment. Fall herbicide use was also demonstrated to improve biological control in areas where insects were only marginally successful, particularly in high density areas. Once leafy spurge densities were reduced, Aphthona flea beetles maintained control as determined in observations of several research sites over the past 7 years. It was also determined that the impact of grasshopper control on leafy spurge biological control can be minimized if treatments are applied when the grasshoppers average above the third instar development stage.

For additional information about TEAM Leafy Spurge or any of the informational products mentioned, please see the TLS website at:

www.team.ars.usda.gov

Or email: teamls@sidney.ars.usda.gov

By: Bethany R. Redlin, TEAM Leafy Spurge Technology Transfer Specialist, USDA-ARS Northern Plains Agricultural Research Laboratory, 1500 N. Central Ave., Sidney, MT 59270, USA
E-mail: bredlin@sidney.ars.usda.gov
Fax: +1 406 433 5038

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ICIPE Technology Transfer Unit Celebrates First Birthday

The ICIPE (International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology) Technology Transfer Unit (TTU) celebrated its first birthday on 1 February 2003. The Unit was established in February 2002 with seed funding from the BioVision Foundation, a Swiss not-for-profit institution founded and supported by a cash award from Dr Hans R. Herren, 1995 World Food Prize laureate and the Director General of ICIPE.

Started in the year 2001 as an NGO, the BioVision-funded programme initially operated from ICIPE's Mbita Point Research and Training Centre (ICIPE-Mbita) on the shores of Lake Victoria to serve the community in the Suba District of Kenya. However, based on the fact that Dr Herren's vision was to use the World Food Prize money to enhance environmentally and socially acceptable technologies across Africa, in February 2002 he spearheaded the formation of a TTU at ICIPE with a regional mandate to facilitate appropriate participatory technology development and transfer. Some of the prize money is still being used as seed funds to support the activities of the TTU, which is currently operating in eastern Africa (Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda and Ethiopia).

The programme at ICIPE-Mbita has been operational for the past year with emphasis on promoting community-based activities in bee keeping, tsetse trapping, push-pull management of stemborers (lepidopteran) and Striga weed, and indigenous vegetable farming through farmers' groups and associations. The technologies are being promoted in close collaboration with Kenya government departments and local and international NGOs operating in Suba District. The programme's close associates in the district include the Agriculture and Environment Programme of the Diocese of Homa Bay, CARE Kenya, Kenya Institute of Organic Farming, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARI).

The activities of the TTU are not solely confined to Suba District. ICIPE-TTU is active in other parts of Kenya and neighbouring countries. Initiatives include:

• Mango IPM in Maragua ridge of Central Province
• Coping strategies for the larger grain borer (Prostephanus truncatus) in the semi-arid areas of Mwingi District, Eastern Province
• IPM in French beans for Kenyan small-scale growers
• IPM for brassica crops in East Africa (Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda)
• Community-based tsetse (Glossina spp.) control in Ethiopia.

The TTU mandate and emphasis is on training of trainers (ToT) and technical backstopping to ensure effective and sustainable technology transfer from ICIPE to national extension systems. How this works in practice is illustrated by recent activities supporting diamondback moth control (Plutella xylostella; DBM) in Kenya and Tanzania.

Building DBM Biocontrol-based IPM Capacity in East Africa

The ICIPE DBM research project is based on the need to import and release the parasitoid Diadegma semiclausum in Eastern Africa as a component of an effective IPM strategy for effective control of DBM, a notorious pest of brassica crops in the region [see BNI 24(1), 3N-4N (March 2003), DBM stretching biocontrol in East Africa]. In October 2001, D. semiclausum was introduced from Taiwan into Kenya by the ICIPE-DBM Biocontrol Project. The first field release was made in July 2002 at a pilot site in Taita Hills, and after only two weeks, the first field recoveries were made. Additional releases in western and central Kenya were made in September and October 2002, respectively. Releases were also made in Arusha, Tanzania in November 2002.

Following these field releases, TTU, in close collaboration with the DBM project and the ministries of agriculture in Kenya and Tanzania, organized an intensive hands-on one-week ToT course to capacitate the national programmes in effective biocontrol-based IPM for brassica pests in their respective countries. For each country, a total of 14 ministry extension staff were trained between August 2002 and January 2003. This was done in anticipation that the respective countries would integrate the new technology and information in on-going national extension programmes. In Kenya, Kiambu District, which provides most of the cabbage and kale consumed in Nairobi, has proved to be a role model. The District Crops Officer has integrated the information in the District Crop Development activities and biocontrol-based IPM of brassicas is being promoted in a number of farmer field schools (FFS) in the District. In Tanzania, the GTZ (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit, Germany) IPM project in Kilimanjaro and Arusha has also adopted and integrated the new technology in the District Crop Protection Programmes. The ICIPE-DBM project is still providing the parasitoids to the national programmes. However, in realization of the fact that the national programmes will need logistical and technical support to facilitate sustainable transfer of the technology, funding is being requested for scaling up in East Africa (Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda).

By: Brigitte Nyambo, ICIPE,
PO Box 30772, Nairobi, Kenya
Email: bnyambo@icipe.org
Fax: +254 2 860110/1

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