Yaninek, J.S., & Schulthess, F. 1993 Developing an environmentally sound plant protection for cassava in Africa.. Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment 46(1-4): 305-324.

Notes: Cassava is a food crop of increasing importance for the rapidly growing rural population in Africa. Easy to grow even under harsh agronomic conditions, cassava is the primary source of carbohydrates for more than 200 million people, including the poorest on the continent, and provides food security to most subsistence farmers. Several pests including phytophagous arthropods, plant pathogens and weeds constrain cassava production on the continent. The exotic species introduced accidentally from the Neotropics constitute the largest group of pests. The long cropping cycle exposes cassava to relatively few additional pests in Africa, and enhances sustainable pest management interventions such as biological control, host plant resistance and cultural practices. Historically, cassava plant protection focused on resistance breeding, but since the invasion of several devastating exotic pests in the 1970s, a wider range of pest management solutions are now being pursued. Plant protection interventions that are developed and tested by teams of multi-disciplinary scientists with input from extension agents and client farmers are urgently needed. Appropriate technology development requires an understanding of key pest-host-agroecosystem interactions in the context of the agronomic practices of the farmer and the socio-economic importance of the crop. A regional project to develop, test and implement ecologically sustainable cassava plant protection in West Africa is presented as a general model for developing appropriate pest management in Africa. The example is given of Phenacoccus manihoti, one of the most successful classical biological control campaigns, which is now controlled satisfactorily in most, but not all, agroecosystems by the introduced parasitoid Epidinocarsis lopezi.