Research Components

Objectives

To map susceptibility profiles of agricultural pests to pesticides for efficient agrochemicals utilisation and reduced presence of pesticide residues in Anopheles breeding sites.

As vegetable farming rapidly expands in West African settings, farmers are poorly advised on the best practices for using insecticides to control pests. This lack of information results in indiscriminate use of insecticides by farmers that contributes to resistance among Anopheles populations. This study will investigate this effect using:

• Topical assays to map susceptibility profiles of vegetable pests to pesticides

• Analysis of insecticide residues in Anopheles breeding sites in and around selected vegetable farms

• Quality checks of chemical pesticides used by farmers

Two types of sites will be selected in the course of this study: a set of sites under organic vegetable production which will serve as control sites; and a second set of sites where farmers use synthetic agro-insecticides. 

Soil, water and plant samples will be collected at these site for residue analysis. Assays will also be conducted on collected pest larvae to assess susceptibility to pesticides; as well as the analysis of the quality of chemical pesticides used by farmers to quantify active ingredients in these agriculture inputs. 

All information will be shared with agricultural groups to inform pesticide best practices in the future.