Rhodes launches research centre
RHODES University yesterday launched its Centre for Biological Control, which was billed as essential to developing sustainable alternatives to pesticides and other chemical pest management in the country’s agricultural industry.
With much of the country’s citrus and other agricultural products heading for European markets, an emphasis on reduced pesticide use in line with the EU guidelines has become crucial for sustainability.
Rhodes director of the newlyfounded CBC Professor Martin Hill is ensuring that Rhodes is ready for the challenge.
The CBC grew out of a research group, headed by Hill, which has won international awards.
Inspired by Rachel Carson’s book Silent Spring, exploring the destruction of nature by the wholesale use of insecticides, Hill began looking at alternatives 15 years ago.
The primary goal of the group’s research back then was to reduce the impact of aquatic weeds that clog up freshwater ecosystems in the continent, destroying water quality and biodiversity.
The idea of releasing host-specific biological control agents, such as specific insects to decimate the water weed worked so well that a number of agricultural industries, including the chicory and citrus sectors, also began to demand Hill’s research group’s time.
The group this year transitioned into the CBC, which includes several cross-disciplinary departments such as zoology and entomology, botany, biochemistry and microbiology, economics and economic history, chemistry, pharmacy, and environmental sciences.
The CBC houses two mass rearing facilities for biological agents, one outside Grahamstown and one in Uitenhage. It also houses a quarantine facility for research into control agents. There they grow a “pest”, such as water hyacinth, under controlled conditions to test the efficacy of various insects or other “biological control agents” mass bred to control them.
These biological control agents are available free to researchers, implementation officers, reserve and water quality managers, farmers and others wanting to control invasive species in their local natural environments.
Citrus Research International’s Sean Moore said increasing awareness about the environment, human health and sustainability issues had led to a emphasis on integrated pest management, which incorporates the principle of biological control with selective use of chemicals.
He predicted that biological control would overtake synthetic chemicals in the foreseeable future and said the CBC would have to quadruple in size to serve the biocontrol needs of the continent.
Rhodes vice-chancellor, Dr Sizwe Mabizela, yesterday said the CBC had enjoyed success at every level, including research, teaching and community engagement.
The deputy director general of environmental affairs, Dr Guy Preston, said biological control would be a critical component in addressing various threats and in ensuring long-term productivity of land.