WARDA IPM project 05: Integrated management of the African rice gall midge (AfRGM) in West Africa.

Duration: Rolling programme since 1990

Purpose: To develop and test appropriate, sustainable and improved low-cost pest management strategies for AfRGM adapted to the needs of smallholder farmers in West Africa.

Background/description: The African rice gall midge (AfRGM), Orseolia oryzivora Harris and Gagné (Diptera: Cecidomyiidae) is an insect pest found only in Africa. It was first reported in Sudan in 1954, Shendum, Plateau State, Nigeria in 1956 and thought to belong to the same species known as a pest of rice in Asia. In 1982 it was correctly identified as a distinct species from the Asian rice gall midge (AsRGM), Orseolia oryzae Wood-Mason. It causes severe crop losses during the vegetative stages (seedling to panicle initiation) by producing a gall called ‘silver shoot’ that prevents panicle production. Severe yield losses were reported from southern Burkina Faso in the late 1970s and ten years later extensive outbreaks occurred in Abakaliki, southeast Nigeria, involving about 50,000 ha of rice. It remains a major pest of rainfed lowland and irrigated rice in both countries and since 1990, outbreaks have also been reported from Mali, Sierra Leone, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Ghana, Tanzania and Uganda. Overall, it has been recorded from twenty African countries: Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad, Côte d’Ivoire, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Malawi, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Sudan, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda and Zambia. Developing affordable and appropriate IPM strategies for AfRGM are crucial if sustainable increases in production of rice by smallholder farmers in West Africa are to be achieved. WARDA has given high priority to the development of resistant varieties. Screening germplasm under artificial and natural infestation levels is essential for identifying better source material with stable resistance to AfRGM. However, resistant rice plants need to be combined with biological and cultural control for an efficient and environment-friendly control strategy against AfRGM.

Agroecozone(s) and location(s): Rainforest, Derived savanna, Guinea savanna, rainfed and irrigated lowlands of Burkina Faso, Gambia, Mali, Nigeria, Senegal and Sierra Leone in West Africa

Expected outputs: a) The biology and variation of AfRGM that influence its pest status determined; b) The ecology of AfRGM with emphasis on the role of alternate host plants in gall midge abundance understood; c) Rice cultivars with resistance/tolerance to AfRGM and superior agronomic characteristics and grain quality developed and disseminated in West Africa; d) Management of AfRGM by enhancement of indigenous natural enemies through cultural techniques assessed; e) Management recommendations for AfRGM in the principal rice growing areas of West Africa promoted; f) The socio-economic factors that influence adoption of pest management strategies by rice farmers’ assessed.

Potential impact and beneficiaries: Countries benefiting from research will be not only those in which it is carried out, but all those in West Africa where AfRGM cause significant losses in rice yield. The ultimate beneficiaries will be poor small-holder farmers who will have access to cost effective, environmentally acceptable and appropriate means to manage AfRGM. It is not anticipated that the successful application of the research findings would negatively impact any group. In particular, since women provide much of the labour force in smallholder rice production in West Africa, it is expected that the increases in yields per unit area resulting from controlling AfRGM should reduce the labour inputs required. Institutional support will be provided to WARDA and National Programme scientists and extension staff who will benefit from new approaches to management of AfRGM and new sources of resistance to this pest. Wider benefits from the identification of crop resistance or tolerance to AfRGM accrue to the members of ROCARIZ, the WARDA/NARS network.

Partners: a) National Cereals Research Institute, Bida, Nigeria b) Rice Research Station, Rokupr, Sierra Leone; c) Centre for Agriculture and Biosciences International, Silwood Park, UK; d) Norwegian Crop Research Institute, Norway; e) International Rice Research Institute, Phillipines; f) Insititut d'Economie Rural, Sikasso, Mali; g) Institut d’Etudes et de Recherches Agricoles, Bobo Dioualasso, Burkina Faso; h) National Agricultural Research Institute, Serrekunda, The Gambia; i) Institut Senegalais de Recherches Agricoles, Djibelor, Senegal; j) Anambra State University of Science and Technology, Enugu, Nigeria

Development investor(s): The UK Department for International Development (DFID); Norwegian Research Council (NRC)

WARDA contact person(s)/principal investigator(s): Francis E. Nwilene F.Nwilene@cgiar.org Website: www.warda.cgiar.org