Regional Project: West Africa

Ghana | Mali | Senegal

A research project working to improve food security in West Africa by focusing on “packages”—suites of techniques optimized for a given crop

Country Profiles

The IPM Innovation Lab has a presence in three countries in West Africa. These fact sheets provide an overview of the work we are doing in each country, Sincluding our research challenges and accomplishments.

Ghana
Mali
Senegal

Description

Vegetables are a critical source of nutrition and an important cash crop in West Africa. Vegetable crop production in West Africa is subject to constraints including losses due to arthropod pests, diseases,and weeds. The IPM IL West Africa project is carrying out research in Ghana and Senegal to develop comprehensive IPM packages for three vegetable crops that are commercially and nutritionally important in the region—cabbage, potato, and tomato. These packages address pest-related constraints from seed selection to post-harvest storage.

Project achievements and highlights

  • With the discovery of a new, highly destructive pest in Senegal, Tuta absoluta, the program held workshops for scientists from the region to look at ways of controlling the tomato leafminer using natural predators.
  • The project is working closely with the International Plant Diagnostic Laboratory to improve the diagnostic capacities of scientists in Ghana, Mali, and Senegal.

Phase IV official project title

West Africa Regional Consortium for IPM Excellence

Personnel

Principal Investigator

Robert Gilbertson, Virginia Tech

Co-PIs/Collaborators

United States:  George Mbata, Fort Valley State University | Sally Miller, Ohio State University | Carlyle Brewster, Virginia Tech | Carlyle Brewster, Virginia Tech

Institutional Collaborators: DPV-Senegal, ISRA-Senegal, CRI-Ghana, IER-Mali, OHUN-Mali