Natural Pest Regulation on Orphan Crop Legumes in Africa (NaPROCLA)

人口增长和相关的粮食需求增加给全球粮食生产带来越来越大的压力，到2050年，世界将需要比目前多60%的粮食，有限的土地面积将面临压力，需要在减少化学品投入的同时可持续地生产充足的粮食。农作物的严重虫害是粮食和营养安全面临的主要挑战之一，对贫困农民和低投入孤本作物豆类（如豆类、木豆、豇豆和扁豆）的影响尤为严重。孤儿作物豆类的虫害防治往往被忽视，但虫害的任何管理都依赖于大量的农用化学品投入，这对使用者和消费者的接触产生了负面影响，农药严重影响了非目标无脊椎动物，而这些无脊椎动物通过授粉或自然虫害调节可能有益于粮食生产。农业系统在生态上是复杂的，必须与自然生境一起运作，而不是耗尽它们。更有弹性的农业和针对小农的投资可以带来变革性变化，改善世界上最贫穷人口的前景和生计，同时防范未来风险。在坦桑尼亚、肯尼亚和马拉维，数百万农民及其家庭种植和消费豆类，提供蛋白质、微量营养素和维生素，因此豆类是加强营养安全的最重要手段之一。东非减贫战略文件强调，这些国家的粮食贫困率超过18%，农业是缩小这一生计差距的核心。豆类和豇豆等主要豆类的产量目前很低（500-700公斤/公顷），但潜在产量超过3 000公斤/公顷。因此，数百万农民，特别是妇女（肯尼亚、马拉维和坦桑尼亚孤儿豆类作物的主要种植者）及其家庭有很大的潜力通过改善豆类生产来增加营养和粮食不安全。生物多样性通过提供作物害虫的天敌，支撑着农业生态系统服务和粮食安全、生计和经济发展。天敌减少害虫的数量，从而减少对合成杀虫剂应用的依赖。据报道，仅在美国，他们每年的贡献就达到136亿美元，因此可以从环境和经济方面衡量自然害虫调控的效益。非作物生境，如田边，为环境提供了支持节肢动物捕食者和寄生虫所需的各种食物资源。管理或操纵这种非作物生境有助于支持自然害虫调节，甚至可以在管理更好的自然或操纵的农业生态系统中得到加强和维持。然而，人们对小农生态系统中大多数益虫的出现、密度和影响知之甚少，特别是在非洲。这里提出的研究将推进我们的合作伙伴关系的最新发现，并确定支持和提供自然害虫调控的关键类群。我们将通过改进农业生态系统管理，减少农药使用，制定支持和加强自然虫害管理的方法。拟议的研究将为自然害虫调控的益处提供关键证据，并确定如何通过更好的景观管理或操纵来优化这一点，以及自然害虫调控如何与其他管理措施一起发挥作用，包括自然害虫抗性，植物杀虫剂和间作。

Population growth and associated rising food demands places increasing pressure on global food production, and by 2050 the world will need 60% more food than is available today with pressure on limited land area to produce adequate food sustainably while reducing chemical inputs. Severe pest damage of crops is one of the major challenges to food and nutritional security and disproportionately affects poor farmers and low-input orphan crop grain legumes such as beans, pigeon pea, cowpea and lablab. Pest control is often overlooked on orphan crop legumes, but any management of the pests is dependent on high agrochemical inputs which have negative impacts from exposure of users and consumers and where pesticides severely impact non-target invertebrates that can be beneficial to food production through pollination or natural pest regulation. Agricultural systems are ecologically complex and must function with natural habitats rather than deplete them. More resilient agriculture and focussed investments for smallholder farmers can deliver transformative change and enhance prospects and livelihoods of the world's poorest while safeguarding against future risks. In Tanzania, Kenya and Malawi, legumes are grown and consumed by millions of farmers and their families providing protein, micronutrients and vitamins so represent one of the most important means to enhance nutritional security. East African poverty reduction strategy papers highlight that food poverty exceeds 18% in these countries and agriculture is central to reducing this livelihood gap. Yields of key legumes such as beans and cowpea are presently very low (500-700 kg/ha) but potential yields are >3000 kg/ha. Consequently, millions of farmers, particularly women (the primary growers of orphan legume crops in Kenya, Malawi and Tanzania), and their households have great potential to increase nutritional and food insecurity by improving production of legumes. Biodiversity underpins agricultural ecosystem services and food security, livelihoods and economic development by provisioning natural enemies of crop pests. Natural enemies reduce populations of pest insects thereby reducing reliance on synthetic insecticide application. Through this saving their contribution in the US alone is reported to be $13.6 billion annually so the benefits of natural pest regulation can be measured in environmental and economic terms. Non-crop habitats such as field margins provide the environment with diverse food resources required to support arthropod predators and parasitoids. Management or manipulation of this non-crop habitat can help to support natural pest regulation and can even be augmented and sustained in better managed natural or manipulated agro-ecosystems. The occurrence, density and impacts of most beneficial insects in smallholder ecosystems, however, are poorly understood, particularly in Africa. The research proposed here will take forward recent findings by our partnership and identify the key taxa that support and deliver natural pest regulation. We will develop approaches that support and augment natural pest regulation through improved agroecosystems management with reduced pesticide use. The proposed research will provide key evidence for benefits of natural pest regulation and establish how this can be optimised through better landscape management or manipulation and how natural pest regulation can function alongside other management practises including natural pest resistance, botanical insecticides and intercropping.