Malawi cotton insecticides oroject

Malawi IPM project 03: Evaluation of two insecticides Polytrin C (profenofos + cypermethrin pre-mix) and Fantom C (profenofos + lambda-cyhalothrin pre-mix) for the control of sucking, leaf-eating and bollworm pests of cotton in Malawi
Duration: 1 year (2002 to 2003)
Purpose: To evaluate the performance of two pesticides, namely, Polytrin C 440EC consisting of profenofos and cypermethrin and Fantom C (= Polytrin Ka 315 EC) consisting of a pre-mix of and profenofos and lambda-cyhalothrin for the control of sucking, leaf-eating and bollworm pests in Malawi. Comparisons were also to be made on the performance of Polytrin C and Fantom C in relation to other recent cotton production technologies, such as how the two complement seed treatment.
Background/description: Although cotton represents a major source of employment, income, raw material for the local and international textile industry and a key option for poverty reduction in Malawi, its production has recently dwindled. Many constraints have caused the shrinkage in the industry largely due to unfavourable prices that have previously been offered to growers. The current two or three major buyers present in the country who have also been facilitating farmers in increasing the productivity of their crop are providing an assured market and thus addressing the price aspect. The realities of cotton production in Malawi are that while addressing the price issue, it would complementarily increase productivity if the hosts of other constraints that militate against increasing cotton productivity were addressed concurrently. Among these constraints are arthropod pest attacks that start quite early in the season with seedling and leaf-feeders, and sucking pests. The attacks go on throughout the season with flower feeders and bollworms coming on later in the crop phenology till the fruiting bodies split. Major pests of cotton in Malawi include those that attack seedlings such as elegant grasshopper Zonocerus elegans and termites, sucking pests such as Aphis gossypii, red spider mites Tetranychus spp., and jassids Jacobiella fascialis, bollworms Helicoverpa armigera and Earias spp., and in some areas of Malawi pink bollworm Pectinophora gossypiella. Pest damage in cotton continues till boll-splitting and harvest when the lint gets stained by Dysdercus and A. gossypii, while the former also feeds on seeds. Arthropod pests on cotton in Malawi can account for a yield gap of over 40% and is substantial. Due to the extreme attractiveness of cotton to arthropod infestations and damage, pest management remains one of the most dominant components of the cotton production enterprise in Malawi. For efficiency to achieved in pest management, it is essential for growers to be availed with improved pesticide application approaches that also employs improved pesticides that are convenient to use, user and environmentally friendly, and cost effective, and products able to circumvent the induction of pesticide resistance. Consideration of these issues creates an enabling environment for the availability of improved pesticides that form a key component of an integrated pest management strategy. While recognizing that the standard pesticide recommendation in Malawi involves the use of dimethoate, carbaryl and cypermethrin, in this order, use of effective pre-mixed products would be an improvement to this recommendation. Such pre-mixes may actually avail potentiation opportunities, which would address the considerations earlier mentioned of convenience, efficiency and prevention of pesticide resistance development.
Agro-ecological zone(s) and location(s): Lakeshore and Lower Shire in Malawi
Expected outputs: Improved technology for integrated pest management of major sucking, leaf-eating and bollworm pests of cotton in Malawi. The technology incorporates a pesticide pre-mix with high potentiation that reduces the number of sprays per season while effectively suppressing pest damage and increasing seed cotton yield enhancing natural enemy activity including Chrysopids, Coccinelids and Syrphids. The pre-mix further reduces frequency of operator’s exposure to two different pesticides in a growing season and this is a health bonus.
Potential impact and beneficiaries: There was a yield increase of high quality seed cotton (especially Grade A) by using either of the two pre-mix pesticides (profenofos plus cypermethrin and profenofos plus lambda-cyhalothrin respectively) that were tested, especially when the seed had been pre-treated. Both products were more effective in controlling major cotton pests that would otherwise have depressed yields and also had a greater economic advantage than the current standard pest management regime in cotton in Malawi. As the country has at least 100,000 cotton growers, the benefits of adopting the improved technology can be expected to have a huge socio-economic impact, especially if current support to the marketing of the crop is sustained.
Partners: George Phiri, Foster Kazionetsa, Hastings Wakudyanaye, Stanley Meke & Francis Mutetwa
Development investor(s): Syngenta (Zimbabwe)
Project contact person(s)/principal investigator(s): George Phiri, george.phiri@iucn.org, Makoka Reserach Station