Press release

USAID sponsors successful biopesticide field trials in Senegal

Senegalese agricultural workers prepare a truck-mounted biopesticide sprayer for use in Khelcom. Photo: Aminata Badiane, USAID

DAKAR, January 11, 2007 – Helping West Africa better prepare for future swarms of locusts and grasshoppers, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) has financed a successful first trial of non-toxic biopesticide in Senegal.

The trials are part of a $3.1 million assistance package to farmers and herders in the region following devastating desert locust infestation in 2004 that wiped out entire harvests, making life even more difficult for thousands of rural poor families.

Preliminary results from tests recently concluded at Khelcom in central Senegal indicate that an affordable, low dose of the “Green Muscle” biopesticide will kill grasshoppers but not affect other insects, birds, or animals.

Green Muscle, a biological control product for combating locusts and grasshoppers, was developed with international donor support over a 10-year period and is now commercially available. It is registered in nine West African countries, including Senegal.

Green Muscle is made from spores of a fungus that kills grasshoppers and locusts, but does not harm other organisms. When Green Muscle is used instead of chemical insecticides, only grasshoppers are killed. Birds are not poisoned by eating grasshoppers sprayed with Green Muscle. Beneficial insects such as bees are not killed by Green Muscle sprays and it is not necessary to keep livestock out of sprayed areas for three days as is required when chemical pesticides are used.

Only a small amount of spores is necessary to reduce a population of grasshoppers or locusts. Fifty grams/hectare is the standard dose using hand-held sprayers, trucks, or aircraft.

USAID/Senegal is supporting tests by the Senegal Plant Protection Service (DPV) of low doses of Green Muscle to promote its economical use during large-scale spray programs. A team of 28 people just spent five weeks camping in the grasslands of Khelcom, spraying Green Muscle, and measuring its effect on grasshopper populations.

At the current recommended dose of 50g/ha, Green Muscle remains more expensive to use than conventional chemical pesticides. However, the cost of using Green Muscle would be halved if the research, after additional trials, can demonstrate that the biopesticide can be effective when the dose is reduced by 50%.

When conventional chemical pesticides are sprayed they work quickly, but can harm sensitive environments because they are toxic to many organisms. Biopesticides such as Green Muscle take longer to work than conventional chemical pesticides because they are diseases not poisons. Spores from an application of Green Muscle grow inside a grasshopper or locust, eventually killing it, but this disease does not grow in other organisms. When chemical pesticides are sprayed over large areas during a locust invasion, it is difficult for non-target populations to recover from the widespread use of poisons. Because of its specificity for grasshoppers and locusts, Green Muscle is well-suited for spraying in sensitive environments such as national forests and national parks or when large areas need to be sprayed.

The field trial in Khelcom is one of several DPV activities that USAID/Senegal is supporting to promote operational use of biopesticides against grasshoppers and locusts in Senegal. The project is part of the Integrated Pest Management Collaborative Research Support Program managed by the American university, Virginia Tech.

The results of DPV’s Khelcom field trial clearly showed that a dose of 25g of spores per hectare was as effective as a 50g dose. Whereas unsprayed populations of adult grasshoppers remained stable over a month of monitoring, the sprayed populations at both doses started to decline after seven days and dropped to half within nine days. They plummeted to between 8 and 14% of the original populations after two weeks and fell to 4% by the end of the experiment.

It is expected that as Green Muscle becomes more economical, it will be used more frequently by national spray programs in West Africa. And as DPV/Senegal incorporates Green Muscle into regular grasshopper control operations, Senegal’s environment will benefit as well.

Two more tests similar to those conducted at Khelcom are needed before this biopesticide can be applied in low doses in West Africa. Experts are currently looking for additional opportunities to test Green Muscle in the subregion.

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