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1 This article was downloaded by: [Purdue University] On: 21 March 2012, At: 12:45 Publisher: Taylor & Francis Informa Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number: Registered office: Mortimer House, Mortimer Street, London W1T 3JH, UK International Journal of Agricultural Sustainability Publication details, including instructions for authors and subscription information: On-farm biological control of the pearl millet head miner: realization of 35 years of unsteady progress in Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger William Payne a, Hamado Tapsoba b, Ibrahim B. Baoua c, Ba N. Malick d, Mamadou N'Diaye e & Clementine Dabire-Binso d a Norman E. Borlaug Institute for International Agriculture, Texas A&M University System, Teague Building Suite 123, College Station, TX, , USA b McKnight Foundation, BP 8703, Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso c Institut de Recherches Agronomiques du Niger (INRAN), CRA de Maradi, BP 240, Maradi, Niger d Institute of Environment and Agricultural Research (INERA), Central Laboratory of Agricultural Entomology, Burkina Faso e Institut d'economie Rurale (IER), SRA Cinzana, BP 214, Ségou, Mali Available online: 08 Jun 2011 To cite this article: William Payne, Hamado Tapsoba, Ibrahim B. Baoua, Ba N. Malick, Mamadou N'Diaye & Clementine Dabire-Binso (2011): On-farm biological control of the pearl millet head miner: realization of 35 years of unsteady progress in Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger, International Journal of Agricultural Sustainability, 9:1, To link to this article: PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLE Full terms and conditions of use: This article may be used for research, teaching, and private study purposes. Any substantial or systematic reproduction, redistribution, reselling, loan, sub-licensing, systematic supply, or distribution in any form to anyone is expressly forbidden. The publisher does not give any warranty express or implied or make any representation that the contents will be complete or accurate or up to date. The accuracy of any instructions, formulae, and drug doses should be independently verified with primary sources. The publisher shall not be liable for any loss, actions, claims, proceedings, demand, or costs or damages whatsoever or

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3 On-farm biological control of the pearl millet head miner: realization of 35 years of unsteady progress in Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger William Payne 1*, Hamado Tapsoba 2, Ibrahim B. Baoua 3, Ba N. Malick 4, Mamadou N Diaye 5 and Clementine Dabire-Binso 4 1 Norman E. Borlaug Institute for International Agriculture, Texas A&M University System, Teague Building Suite 123, College Station, TX , USA 2 McKnight Foundation, BP 8703, Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso 3 Institut de Recherches Agronomiques du Niger (INRAN), CRA de Maradi, BP 240, Maradi, Niger 4 Institute of Environment and Agricultural Research (INERA), Central Laboratory of Agricultural Entomology, Burkina Faso 5 Institut d Economie Rurale (IER), SRA Cinzana, BP 214, Ségou, Mali The pearl millet head miner became a major pest in the West African Sahel during the droughts of , and has since remained a threat to food security. Pesticide control is unrealistic for subsistence farmers. Furthermore, there are no cultural control methods or genetic sources of resistance. Biological control was a possibility, but the required ecological knowledge did not exist in the 1970s. A biological control programme could have been rapidly developed through sustained and coordinated funding using existing knowledge. Instead, it took 25 years to lay the scientific groundwork through occasional bursts of uncoordinated short-term activity using international scientists funded by large donors. There was little funding and few prominent roles for national scientists until 2000, when they were empowered by a different approach taken by the McKnight Foundation. An operational system was quickly developed and deployed in which trained farmers rear and release the parasitoid Habrobracon hebetor to effectively eliminate the head miner. The national programme scientists demonstrated admirably that, when trusted and adequately supported and empowered, African researchers can deliver real and effective solutions that are scientifically sound, meet the needs of smallholder farmers, and contribute significantly to improved food security, community resilience and reduced poverty. Keywords: biological control; Habrobracon hebetor; Heliocheilus albipunctella; integrated pest management; pearl millet; Sahel Pearl millet (Pennisetum glaucum (L) R. BR) is the staple cereal crop in the West African Sahel, a region characterized by drought, heat and poor soils. Its yield is constrained by several insect pests, among which the most severe are the stem borer (Coniesta ignefusalis) and head miner (Heliocheilus albipunctella de Joannis (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae)) (NDoye and Gahukar, 1987; Payne, 2006). The head miner became a major pest during the droughts of (Vercambre, 1978; Gahukar, 1990), and can cause up to 85 per cent yield loss. Young larvae perforate millet glumes and eat the flowers, whereas mature larvae cut the floral peduncles, thereby preventing grain formation or causing mature grains to spill. As the larvae chew between the rachis and flowers, they lift the destroyed flowers or developing grains, leaving a characteristic spiral pattern on the millet head. Because of potentially heavy yield loss, the head miner constitutes a threat to food security. Control with pesticides is not realistic for subsistence farmers because of prohibitive cost, poor availability, lack of training, and risks *Corresponding author. w-payne@tamu.edu 9(1) 2011 PAGES , doi: /ijas # 2011 Earthscan. ISSN: (print), X (online).

4 On-farm biological control of the pearl millet head miner 187 to health and the environment. Furthermore, there are few cultural practices for head miner control. Plant breeding for resistance has been attempted since the early 1980s (Henzell et al., 1997; Baoua et al., 2009), but thus far with little real success. There are clearly genotypic differences for head miner damage, but it is unclear whether this is due to true resistance or phenological escape. Putative mechanisms of resistance do not always explain genotypic differences (Youm and Kumar, 1995). For these reasons, biological control was seen as an attractive alternative. However, this requires a knowledge of both pests and predators, including life cycles and environmental response. Such knowledge was lacking in the 1970s, when the head miner became a serious pest. In the 1980s, a number of ecological studies were undertaken in Senegal, Niger and Mali to better understand head miner biology, including its life cycle, reproductive behaviour and yield/infestation relations (Guèvremont, 1981, 1982, 1983; Gahukar et al., 1986; Bhatnagar, 1989; Gahukar, 1990; Ndoye, 1991; Youm and Gilstrap, 1993; Krall et al., 1995; Youm and Owusu, 1998). Additionally, between 1981 and 1986, natural indigenous enemies of head miners were collected in several Senegalese regions (Bhatnagar, 1989), and categorized by the growth stage during which they attacked. Among these, Habrobracon hebetor Say (Hymenoptera: Braconidae), which attacks during the larval stage, was found to be the greatest natural enemy of the head miner. Guèvremont (1983) made similar observations in Niger. H. hebetor is a gregarious and cosmopolitan ectoparasite that attacks many lepidopterous pests of stored grain and field crops. The tiny wasp stings the larva, causing paralysis and arresting metamorphosis. The wasp then deposits eggs in the larva. In general, each female can produce about 100 eggs, and about eight larvae can develop in one host larva. The larvae feed externally on the host and eventually pupate within white cocoons. It takes about 10 days to go from egg to adult at 308C. Bhatnagar (1989) observed that H. hebetor parasitism of head miner larvae ranged from 2 to 14 per cent, and varied strongly from year to year. Furthermore, only larvae collected late in the season had been parasitized. That is, in nature H. hebetor killed head miner larvae late in the season, after crop damage had already been done (Baoua et al., 2009). Nonetheless, other studies in Niger and Senegal found that H. hebetor caused up to 64 per cent head miner mortality (Guèvremont, 1982; Bhatnagar, 1987). It must be stressed that H. hebetor and its lepidopterous hosts had been studied for decades in both stored grains (Richards and Thomson, 1932) and field crops (Ullyett, 1943, 1945). As a cosmopolitan insect, H. hebetor has been used to control lepidopterous pests around the world (Amir-Maafi and Chi, 2006). As early as 1962, it was introduced into Taiwan to control the sugarcane pink borer. But to be an effective control agent, it must be mass reared using suitable larval hosts for rearing and subsequent release. The best method of mass rearing depends on the availability of suitable hosts and other local conditions, including rearing facilities. In 1984, entomologists in Senegal found that H. hebetor survived the dry season by parasitizing Ephestia spp., an insect pest of stored grain (Bhatnagar, 1989). That same year, they began to experiment with rearing H. hebetor using Ephestia larvae as the host in simple jute bags placed in baskets or clay jars. Over the next few years, they further refined the method of rearing H. hebetor, with a view towards a rearing and release system that could be adapted to on-farm conditions. In 1985 and 1986, they began initial release trials. Although almost no data are shown or discussed in his short report, Bhatnagar (1989) stated that fewer head miner larva were observed in fields where H. hebetor was released. In 1985, 50 per cent of larvae were parasitized in fields where release had occurred; in 1986, this figure rose to 78 per cent. In fields where there had been no H. hebetor release, only 19 per cent of larvae were parasitized. After harvest, soil sampling revealed fewer head miner pupae in fields in which H. hebetor had been released (2/10m 2 in 1985 and 1986) compared to those in which it had not (10 23/10m 2 in 1985 and 4 11/10m 2 in 1986). In 1987, Youm and Gilstrap (1993) used a simple laboratory in Niger without temperature or humidity control to develop life-fertility tables of H. hebetor reared on head miner larvae as hosts. They described age-specific survival rates and fecundity for females, which provided a basis for development of improved rearing and release methods. They reported that a female survives on average 24.7 days and lays eggs for 22 days, for a total average production of adults with a sex ratio of 1:1. Efforts continued to develop a simplified system for rearing H. hebetor in the lab but also in farmers fields. In Niger, rearing of H. hebetor began in 1998 as part of a collaborative effort between the National Institute for Agronomic Research (INRAN) and ICRISAT. Based on several laboratory and field studies, many

5 188 W. Payne et al. of which involved students, they arrived at a kit that included a 15cm 25cm jute bag containing 500g of pearl millet grain, 50 larvae of Corcyra cephalonica and five impregnated H. hebetor females (Baoua et al., 2002; Garba, 2000). This allowed the release of approximately 200 adult parasitoids in a period of two weeks. Initial tests using this methodology in 1999 obtained promising results (Garba, 2000). Thus, by the year 2000, or approximately 25 years after the increased outbreaks of head miner had been observed in the Sahel, the scientific groundwork had finally been laid for the biological control of the head miner. However, by then there was little external support from donors to carry this knowledge to farmers fields. Institutional and financial considerations It seems appropriate to review the various individual and institutional actors involved from the mid-1970s until 2000, particularly in light of (i) the per cent yield losses that must have been incurred during those 25 years (Youm and Owusu, 1998); and (ii) the fact that when the head miner outbreaks first occurred, it was already known that H. hebetor was cosmopolitan, and there were already mass rearing and release programmes to serve as models for the rapid development of a biological control system in the Sahel. Vercambre (1978), who was among the first to document increased incidence and severity of the head miner, was working with the French CIRAD (Agricultural Research for Development) in Senegal towards his Doctorat d Ingénieur degree from the Université de Paris-Sud. Similarly, Guèvremont (1981, 1982, 1983), who made some of the earliest field observations of the head miner and H. hebetor, was a French entomologist stationed at the Tarna Research Center of Maradi. The station was established by the French in 1927, and is still the largest research station in Niger. Bhatnagar (1987) and Gahukar (1990), who were part of the Integrated Pest Project of CILSS (Permanent Interstate Committee for Drought Control in the Sahel), worked on several aspects of head miner control, including identification of natural enemies, and mass rearing and release of H. hebetor. The Integrated Pest Project was jointly financed by FAO, CILSS and USAID, and housed within ISRA (Institut Sénégalais de Recherches Agronomiques) in Kaolack. This short review suggests occasional bursts of barely coordinated scientific activity from short-term projects funded sporadically by USAID, France, the EU and other large donors. Furthermore, the early contributions to the scientific literature were mostly made by international scientists, with relatively few resources or leadership roles going to national programmes. (The Swiss government funded projects to form networks of West African scientists working on sorghum and pearl millet during the 1990s. One of these projects focused on the biological control of insects (Nyemba, 1997).) Ndoye (1979, 1991) appears to be one of the few scientists from a national programme in the Sahel to have contributed substantially to early scientific literature on the head miner. Ironically, because of relatively large investments in training West African scientists at the PhD level during the 1980s and, to a lesser extent, the 1990s, there was a relatively large cadre of national scientists in 2000 with the training, experience and leadership skills to conduct a large-scale test of the new biological control system. But by then, there were few national and international financial resources to do so, and few donors were willing to directly support national scientists, who therefore inevitably began to suffer from scientific isolation from their international colleagues. The anecdotal case of Youm suggests that a different approach might have been taken to rapidly develop a system of biological control, build scientific capacity within West Africa, and avoid the yield loss and hunger associated with the head miner. Youm, along with his many co-authors, contributed much to our understanding and control of the head miner. He was a student from Senegal who pursued his doctoral degree at Texas A&M University under Gilstrap (Youm and Gilstrap, 1993). Youm s doctoral studies were funded by a USAID grant to Gilstrap through the International Sorghum/Millet Collaborative Research Support Program (INTSORMIL) and the Texas A&M University System. He later worked for many years at ICRISAT in Niger and Mali, which allowed him to remain in contact with international colleagues. That is, one of the largest scientific contributions to our knowledge of ecology and control of the millet head miner (and stem borer, for that matter) came about through training of a scientist from the region who received sustained financial support (through INTSORMIL/Texas A&M and then ICRISAT), and could maintain long-term international contacts. Much has been written since the food crisis of 2008 on the consequences of under investment in

6 On-farm biological control of the pearl millet head miner 189 agricultural research and capacity building by international donors and African governments, particularly during the 1990s and early 2000s (e.g. New York Times, 2008; Bertini and Glickman, 2009; Payne, 2010). The slow evolution of the head miner biological control programme would seem to be an example of the negative effects of sporadic, uncoordinated and insufficient funding of technology development, and neglect of human capacity building, including training and postgraduate support of scientists. One must wonder what the human costs of such a funding strategy were. The McKnight Foundation s GIMEM project The McKnight Foundation s Collaborative Crop Research Program ( index.html) (CCRP) seeks to increase food security in developing countries through the support of agricultural research aimed at improving food production and the nutritional content of crops important to the developing world. The CCRP advocates a Community of Practice approach that includes: using knowledge from a range of partners, including farmers associations, national agricultural research and extension institutes, nongovernmental organizations and international experts; empowerment of farmers, national scientists and other partners; various supplementary financial mechanisms to support capacity building and additional technical support within and between projects; sustained partnership where solid progress is demonstrated; and a learning process or theory of change that includes both social and biophysical sciences to bring about change, with emphasis on community participation in the broadest sense within and among funded projects. Currently, the CCRP funds Communities of Practice in West Africa, East Africa, Southern Africa and the Andes. The West African Community of Practice is active in Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso. In 2006, the CCRP funded the project Gestion Intégrée De La Mineuse De l Epi Du Mil (GIMEM) or Integrated Management of Pearl Millet Head Miner for a total of $240,000. The major objectives were to: test on-farm the biological control system for the millet head miner; train students, technicians, extension agents and farmers in GIMEM and other technologies; conduct further research on control of the head miner; and evaluate pearl millet varieties for resistance to the head miner. The GIMEM leadership is composed of four entomologists working in the national agricultural research institutions of Mali (IER), Burkina Faso (INERA) and Niger (INRAN). The overall project is coordinated by Dr Baoua, who leads activities in Niger, with country leadership roles for Dr Ndiaye in Mali and Drs Malick and Dabiri in Burkina Faso. Each scientist is an established leader in their respective institutes. Dr Baoua, for example, is director of the Maradi station in Niger, and Dr Dabiri is head of the entomology laboratory at Kamboinse in Burkina Faso. These scientists are supported by an international entomologist at IITA, Dr Manò, who also receives project funds. IITA has established expertise in the biological control of pests throughout sub- Saharan Africa. Project activities are conducted in partnership with extension services, local development projects, farmers organizations and ICRISAT. Farmers are the main partners in the field. The general procedure in all three countries has consisted of: an initial meeting held in the village square in the presence of local authorities; explanation of the biological control system, including the life cycles of the head miner, H. hebetor, and the alternative host; selection of farmers who will participate; monitoring and evaluation of the effects of release; and a survey to gain insight on farmer perceptions of GIMEM technologies. The major farmer organizations that are currently involved in the GIMEM project include: The FUMA Gaskiya Farmers Federation in the Maradi region of Niger. FUMA Gaskiya has more than 30,000 members, of which 47 per cent are women. It is organized into 13 unions and 138

7 190 W. Payne et al. farmers organizations. FUMA Gaskiya cooperates with other McKnight-funded projects as well. CRU (Commission of Users of Research) in the region of Segou, Mali. CRU is an officially recognized farmer federation that actively participates in research and development activities. It is located near the Cinzana Station, where Dr Ndiaye conducts his research. The Federation of Unions of Naam Groupment (FUGN), which conducts agricultural development activities in Ouahigouya, Burkina Faso. The farmers association of Pobé Mengao (APP) in Burkina Faso. Participation in the GIMEM project is not restricted to farmers organizations; individual villages can also participate. Synergies are also sought with reputable non-governmental organizations involved in agricultural development. During the first phase of the project from 2006 to 2008, the following verifiable outcomes were achieved: The methodology for mass rearing and release of H. hebetor was further refined for on-farm conditions. In each village, five farmers were supplied with 15 parasitoid kit bags consisting of one 15cm 25cm jute bag, 500g of millet grain, 25 larvae of C. cephalonica and two pairs of H. hebetor. Bags were placed in traditional straw granaries. Offspring dispersed to parasitize head miner larvae in millet fields. Initial estimates suggest that H. hebetor populations affected head miner larvae within a 5km radius of the village. H. hebetor was released in 385 villages, with an effective coverage of more than 200,000ha. Estimates from technical reports suggest yield increases of 40 per cent in areas of intervention due to head miner control, consistent with the yield loss estimates of Youm and Owusu (1998). Counts of 2,240 millet heads in 148 fields suggest that, overall, 72 per cent of larvae were killed (GIMEM, 2006). Technical training of farmers was through farmer field schools (FFS), in which GIMEM trained 709 farmers, including 214 women. The project also trained 142 technicians and local extension agents (animateurs). Technicians, animateurs and farmers learned, at different levels, how to raise H. hebetor during the dry season, how to fabricate jute bags and how to release H. hebetor. During the first project phase, spillover effects were noted. GIMEM technicians and animateurs were asked by at least 50 non-project villages for training. Farmers in the FFS were introduced to other technologies through demonstration plots, which included fertilizer application, cropping systems and crop varieties. A survey of 300 farmers was conducted to assess farmer knowledge of the head miner and its control in 2006, at the project s beginning, and in 2008, at the end of the first phase (Malick et al., 2010). Results suggest that in 2006, farmers already recognized the millet head miner as the most damaging insect pest. By 2008, they recognized that H. hebetor was effective as a control agent, and that grain yield had, as a result, increased. They also pointed out difficulties in handling the parasitoid. GIMEM researchers have supervised 11 students on topics related to the control of the head miner. These include three techniciens du développement agricole (two in Niger and one in Mali), six ingénieurs agronomes (four in Niger and two in Burkina Faso), one DEA in Burkina Faso and one PhD student in Burkina Faso. The project evaluated 20 pearl millet cultivars for resistance to head miners at 10 sites. Two appeared to have robust resistance. The project has generated enthusiasm among farmers simply because they can harvest and store pearl millet heads with almost no damage from head miners. But more broadly, the GIMEM team has helped to build a trusting relationship to facilitate further technology delivery because farmers now have evidence that local scientists can deliver working solutions to local problems. The success of the GIMEM team has been recognized by policy makers at the national level. Dr Baoua, for example, received national recognition by the government of Niger for his efforts in controlling the millet head miner. Such recognition generates greater awareness of the need for governments to support national agricultural research institutions. GIMEM II Consistent with the McKnight Foundation s view of sustained partnership where solid progress is demonstrated, GIMEM was renewed in July 2009 for a

8 On-farm biological control of the pearl millet head miner 191 second four-year phase for $800,000. Consistent with the policy of providing additional support for capacity building and access to expert technical assistance, supplementary funds were made available to organize an international workshop on the millet head miner. The workshop was held in February 2010 in Niamey, Niger. Its three objectives were to: 1. increase scientific exchange and encourage collaboration with international experts; 2. analyse the results received thus far and encourage publication in research, extension and other appropriate outlets; and 3. plan for research and development activities in the second phase, including new research themes, improved experimental design and development of a methodology to learn lessons from the FFS. To address the first objective, support was provided to bring together several eminent scientists involved in integrated pest management, including insect ecology, chemical signalling, simulation modelling, remote sensing and molecular biology. International experts came from IITA, ICRISAT, France, Canada, Ecuador and the USA. Other entomologists with regional expertise came from national programmes, universities and regional centres. Consistent with McKnight s view of community-wide participation, two representatives from the larger farmer organizations (FUMA Gaskiya and CRU) were invited as well. During the workshop sessions, a great many ideas were exchanged on data interpretation, future studies and critical needs within GIMEM. To address the second and third objectives, the McKnight Foundation engaged the Statistical Services Centre of Reading University, UK, to support all CCRP Communities of Practice in the world. Dr Roger Stern, who is assigned to the West Africa Community of Practice, attended the workshop to offer assistance in data management and experimental design. Activities during the first year of GIMEM II included the release of H. hebetor on a larger scale, further screening of pearl millet varieties, and improvements in the FFS. At IITA, research to develop methodologies for release of the egg parasitoid Trichogrammatoidea sp. began. We believe that the apparent success generated by the GIMEM project has stemmed from a fundamentally different approach to supporting research projects than was seen in the past. Instead of sporadic, uncoordinated and insufficient project funding, research is coordinated within and between projects within the framework of a regional theory of change to which communities within the projects contribute. National scientists and community leaders are encouraged to take the lead, but have regular and varied access to international expertise on topics that they themselves identify. Where progress is demonstrated, support is sustained. Capacity building is promoted and supported throughout the community, including for scientists, extensionists, and men and women farmers, with supplemental funds provided to projects when necessary. Prospects for spread of GIMEM technologies to achieve greater resilience and productivity It is difficult to predict the spread of technology, particularly in West Africa, where there have historically been low adoption rates. Nonetheless, we are very optimistic about the spread of GIMEM technology for several reasons. The first is that it is already spreading. Even in the first phase, spillover effects occurred when nonproject villages asked project technicians and animateurs for training in the rearing and release of H. hebetor. Furthermore, GIMEM has received recognition among farmer organizations and local, regional and national governments, leading to ever-increasing farmer demand for training in all three countries. In Burkina Faso, activities have expanded in the Dori region to include the villages of Fofou, Gotougou, Towguel, Korea, Bouloy, Beguéttigui, Tchoumbonga, Feto M banga, Dantchadi and Maler. In Niger, they have expanded to the departments of Magaria Mirriah, Tessaoua, Aguié Dakoro Madaoua and Tahoua. In Mali, they have expanded to Tominian, Bal and Baraouéli Niono. These new sites were targeted because they have histories of heavy head miner damage. In 2009 alone, a total of 1605 release bags were prepared and utilized. Second, we believe there are good prospects for regional expansion beyond McKnight-funded countries in West Africa where the head miner is a constraint. Discussions for expanding tests to Senegal are currently under way between Dr Baoua and Dr Ndiaga Cisse, Director of the Bambey station. Prospects seem good for spread to other regions as well. For example, a recent ecological study of the head miner by Eisa et al. (2007) suggests scope for GIMEM technology in Sudan.

9 192 W. Payne et al. Third, there seems to be a resurgence of financial support by donors for agricultural research and development in Africa (although it remains to be seen whether it will be sustained and how much will actually go to research and technology development). The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, for example, has recently poured millions of dollars into agricultural research activities in Africa. The CCRP has benefited from this generosity. Additionally, GIMEM technology will be part of the large HOPE project that the Gates Foundation recently awarded to ICRISAT for large-scale introduction of technology to sorghum and pearl millet systems in Africa. Finally, the GIMEM leadership has designed the project to improve human capacity at many levels not only to further its work on biological control of the head miner, but more generally to improve food production and farm resilience. It has done this through its participatory and inclusive approach to training communities that include farmers associations, technicians, animateurs and leader farmers. This has given GIMEM technologies the ability to spread based on community involvement without the need for central coordination, large external intervention or financial support. And even though the McKnight Foundation has supplementary funds to support training for CCRP projects, the GIMEM II leadership internally budgeted its own scholarship funds to address the dearth of young scientists entering national agricultural research systems, thereby ensuring project sustainability. Three young MS or PhD scientists will be trained in integrated pest management to work on specific scientific needs of GIMEM II. GIMEM II has targeted very ambitious outputs to achieve by 2012, including better geographic identification of areas with recurrent head miner attacks, release of H. hebetor in 3,000 villages, a 20 per cent yield increase over 1 million ha, identification and multiplication of two resistant pearl millet varieties, formation of 50 more FFS, and training of 100 extension agents and 3,000 animateurs, of which one-third will be women. Furthermore, they have explicitly budgeted for monitoring and evaluation activities, including impact assessment. Equally important, they have set the goal of increased autonomy through additional research funds to benefit the Sahelian farmer. Ambitious though these goals may be, we believe that the strong leadership and community approach of the GIMEM team, combined with sustained donor and national government support, make them attainable. Summary and conclusion The McKnight Foundation-funded GIMEM project has drawn upon decades of somewhat uncoordinated, short-term research projects in West Africa to generate an effective biological control system for the pearl millet head miner. National scientists have developed and deployed an operational system first envisaged decades ago that allows farmers, with proper training and technical support, to learn to rear and release the parasitoid H. hebetor in their fields to effectively kill head miner larvae. In a more general sense, the GIMEM team has demonstrated that, when trusted and adequately supported and empowered, researchers in African national agricultural research systems are capable of delivering real and effective solutions that are scientifically sound, meet the needs of smallholder farmers, and contribute significantly to improved food security, community resilience and reduced poverty. The GIMEM leadership should be congratulated for building a team of confident and nationally recognized scientists, creating a trusting relationship with farmers, and raising policy makers awareness of the need to adequately support national agricultural research systems. References Amir-Maafi, M., Chi, H., 2006, Demography of Habrobracon hebetor (Hymenoptera: Braconidae) on two pyralid hosts (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae), Annals of the Entomology Society of America 99(1), Baoua, I., Bakabé, O., Balla, H., 2002, Expérimentation d un système de transfert de l élevage de Habrobracon hebetor Say en milieu paysan: activités conduites dans la région de Maradi dans le cadre du projet DPV/INRAN/ DFPV/ICRISAT, Ministère du développement agricole du Niger. Baoua, I., Ba, N. M., Ndiaye, M., Dabiré, C., Tamò, M., 2009, Rapport d activités du projet de gestion intégrée de la mineuse de l épi de mil au Sahel, Unpublished report, McKnight Foundation Collaborative Crop Research Program, Minneapolis, MN. Bertini, C., Glickman, D., 2009, Farm futures: bringing agriculture back to U.S. foreign policy, Foreign Affairs 88, Bhatnagar, V. S., 1987, Conservation and encouragement of natural enemies of insect pest in dry land subsistence farming: problem, progress and prospects in the Sahelian zone, Insect Science and its Application 8,

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