Natural Pest Regulation on Orphan Crop Legumes in Africa (NaPROCLA)

Population growth and associated rising food demands places increasing pressure on global food production, and by 2050 the world will need 60% more food than is available today with pressure on limited land area to produce adequate food sustainably while reducing chemical inputs. Severe pest damage of crops is one of the major challenges to food and nutritional security and disproportionately affects poor farmers and low-input orphan crop grain legumes such as beans, pigeon pea, cowpea and lablab. Pest control is often overlooked on orphan crop legumes, but any management of the pests is dependent on high agrochemical inputs which have negative impacts from exposure of users and consumers and where pesticides severely impact non-target invertebrates that can be beneficial to food production through pollination or natural pest regulation. Agricultural systems are ecologically complex and must function with natural habitats rather than deplete them. More resilient agriculture and focussed investments for smallholder farmers can deliver transformative change and enhance prospects and livelihoods of the world's poorest while safeguarding against future risks. In Tanzania, Kenya and Malawi, legumes are grown and consumed by millions of farmers and their families providing protein, micronutrients and vitamins so represent one of the most important means to enhance nutritional security. East African poverty reduction strategy papers highlight that food poverty exceeds 18% in these countries and agriculture is central to reducing this livelihood gap. Yields of key legumes such as beans and cowpea are presently very low (500-700 kg/ha) but potential yields are >3000 kg/ha. Consequently, millions of farmers, particularly women (the primary growers of orphan legume crops in Kenya, Malawi and Tanzania), and their households have great potential to increase nutritional and food insecurity by improving production of legumes. Biodiversity underpins agricultural ecosystem services and food security, livelihoods and economic development by provisioning natural enemies of crop pests. Natural enemies reduce populations of pest insects thereby reducing reliance on synthetic insecticide application. Through this saving their contribution in the US alone is reported to be $13.6 billion annually so the benefits of natural pest regulation can be measured in environmental and economic terms. Non-crop habitats such as field margins provide the environment with diverse food resources required to support arthropod predators and parasitoids. Management or manipulation of this non-crop habitat can help to support natural pest regulation and can even be augmented and sustained in better managed natural or manipulated agro-ecosystems. The occurrence, density and impacts of most beneficial insects in smallholder ecosystems, however, are poorly understood, particularly in Africa. The research proposed here will take forward recent findings by our partnership and identify the key taxa that support and deliver natural pest regulation. We will develop approaches that support and augment natural pest regulation through improved agroecosystems management with reduced pesticide use. The proposed research will provide key evidence for benefits of natural pest regulation and establish how this can be optimised through better landscape management or manipulation and how natural pest regulation can function alongside other management practises including natural pest resistance, botanical insecticides and intercropping.