The papaya mealybug, also called Paracoccus marginatus, has been detected in Tanzania’s coastal areas and in Zanzibar island; consequently igniting alarm among the region’s scientific and agriculture community, NaijaAgroNet.
Experts at the International Institute for Tropical Agriculture (IITA) in Tanzania fear that the endemic pest could put food security and the livelihoods of hundreds of thousands of farmers in jeopardy.
“The climates of coastal West Africa and coastal
East Africa are similarly tropical and humid, and these conditions clearly
favour the pest.”
James
Legg, an entomologist with the IITA in Tanzania, who is leading the pest
control initiative, toldSciDev.Net in a chat which was also monitored by
NaijaAgroNet said “It is most likely that the insects that came to
Tanzania arrived from South
Asia, since their occurrence has not been
recorded in central African countries and there is significant trade between
Asia and coastal East Africa.