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Scientists warn of a new pest on the horizon

D Jose in Trivandrum

A winged intruder, with a sinister reputation in the US, Africa and Europe, now threatens the farmlands of south India.

The fly, which was found in the central Indian plains in the early nineties, has already left its mark on the farmlands of Karnataka.

The pest, called the 'serpentine leaf-miner' or Liriomyza trifoli, came to light soon after tomato growers found thin wavy streaks on their crop, which subsequently failed. This is the feature that gave the pest the name 'serpentine leaf-miner'. Though scientists were quick to sound the alarm, the fly had already moved to cucumber, French beans and other vegetables.

The problem caused some concern in Kerala, Bombay and Madras since the Karnataka farmers supplied a sizeable quantity of the vegetables consumed in these places.

The story of this pest's global conquest was narrated by Dr N K Krishnakumar, a senior scientist at the Indian Institute of Horticulture Research at the recently-concluded International Conference on Conservation Biology in Trivandrum.

The leaf miner is believed to be a native of Florida, which first reached California in 1970s and then sneaked into Kenya in 1974, possibly through exported vegetables, and devastated farmlands there.

Though it is yet to be ascertained, the pest is believed to have taken off from Florida in the tissues of chrysanthemum, a garden plant, Krishnakumar said.

Later, it continued its destructive voyage to Europe and ravaged crops there. Its presence in Asia was first noticed around 1991. Krishnakumar, known to be a leading Indian entomologist, noted that a well-known scientist K A Spencer, a specialist in agromozoid flies, had earlier warned Indian scientists that this pest could reach the country and cause devastation. He had observed that India had hardly any control on imports of plant tissues, making it easy for the fly to enter the country through the import route. As the pest easily develops immunity to conventional pesticides, the farmers were switching over to crops like bitter gourd and pumpkin that are resistant to the scourge, Krishnakumar said.

The IIHR scientists were now trying new bio-pesticides like neem-based extracts and exotic and native parasites to eradicate the invader.

Krishnakumar lamented that indiscriminate application of insecticide cocktails by the alarmed farmers was a curse.

"Prevention is the best way out. There is an urgent need to monitor plant tissue imports and exports. Quarantines for imported plant tissue is a must in the coming days," he said.

Others at the conference expressed their reservations about the IIHR plan to introduce exotic parasites to deal with the problem.

Conservationist P Pushpangadan pointed out that some exotic parasites, introduced to quell other pests, had created problems of their own.

A few participants, like environmental activist P R J Pradeep, wondered whether any vested interests engineered the invasion.

"Is it natural or planned? Considering the commercial competition among the agro-chemical giants and the predicted food wars of the next era, scientists alone may not be able to find the answers," he said.

Pradeep felt any such manmade scourge could cause famines in future. He called for a probe into the possibility that the problem by organisations like the Food and Agricultural Organisation.

But Krishnakumar felt it was unlikely there was a plot involved in the introduction of the pest into the country.

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