Speckled beetle key to saving crops in Ethiopia

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The weed, called parthenium, is so destructive that farmers in the east African nation have despairingly given it the nickname “faramsissa” in Amharic, which, translated, means “sign your land away.” Farmers have doused the weed in pesticides and ripped it out with their hands, but it has only spread further.

After a decade-long effort, scientists from the Integrated Pest Management Innovation Lab released a parthenium-eating beetle called Zygogramma bicolorata.

“Extensive research has shown us that the beetle eats and breeds only on parthenium leaves,” said Muni Muniappan, director of the Integrated Pest Management Innovation Lab, a program funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development. “It’s been tested in Australia, India, South Africa, and Mexico with similar results.”

Parthenium is native to the Americas, where a suite of natural enemies that includes the Zygogramma beetle keeps the weed in check. But in the early 1970s, parthenium entered Ethiopia in shipments of food aid from the United States. With no serious contenders, the plant flourished.

In the past three decades, parthenium has become the second most common weed in Ethiopia, suppressing the growth of all other plants and wreaking havoc in the fields and gardens of smallholder farmers.

“The plant is an aggressive invader. A single plant can produce 25,000 seeds and completes its life cycle in six to eight weeks,” said Wondi Mersie, a Virginia State University professor and principal investigator of the Virginia Tech-led project. “It displaces native species, affects human health, and negatively impacts quality of life.”