NEWS:

17 Mar, 2016


Trust Kasambala working in the entomology lab (left picture)
The study of insects, Entomology, is still a field unknown to many especially in Africa, and Malawi in particular. Despite our everyday interactions with insect in our homes and fields, very little research has been done in Malawi as regards to insects. Trust Kasambala, took a board step to become one of the few qualified entomologist in Malawi.

Trust Kasambala is a lecturer and a researcher at the Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Resources, in the Department of Crop and Soil Sciences. Her master's degree is in Tropical Entomology and is current studying towards a PhD at the prestigious Norwegian University if Life Sciences, under the competitive LUANAR'S CABMACC Scholarship.

Kasambala elaborated the importance of entomology stating that insects affects our everyday lives, "we eat them, for example ngumbi, sesenya, mafulufute; they damage our crops like weevils and armyworms; our properties e. g termites; they affect our health e. g mosquitoes and bedbugs; our animals e.g tsetse flies and black flies; provide us raw materials e. g honey, bees wax and silk; they pollinate our crops and act as decomposers. Insects are also used in crime investigation" said Kasambala

Her PhD thesis is titled "Reduced environmental pesticide load in sugarcane production through introduction of new integrated pest management strategies in a changing climate", her research aims at finding affordable but effective alternatives to synthetic insecticides to be used in the control of major insect pests in Malawi. "I am hoping to come up with a bio-pesticide locally isolated from our major cash crop and to successfully test it" said Kasambala.

The research is particularly focused on sugarcane pests. Asked why the main focus is on sugarcane and not maize, the countries staple food, Kasambala claiming that research on sugarcane has been on a downside. "Sugarcane is a very important cash crop for Malawi. Unlike maize and tobacco, research on sugarcane both in aspects of agronomy and pest management has been very minimal. The sugar industry has been relying on research results from South Africa and other sugar growing countries. It is high time we conducted research to meet the needs of our local farming industries" said Kasambala.

According to Kasambala, Integrated Pest Management (IPM) integrates farmers’ knowledge, cultural practices and biological control, it is very important because it helps reduce the amount of very dangerous pesticides in the environment.

As part of her thesis, Kasambala is expected to produce four separate interlinked research papers. "The first paper documents pesticides currently used in sugarcane production. The second paper characterizes the genetic diversity of main sugarcane pest such as stemborers. The third paper is a key paper because in this paper i will isolate and identify the local bio-pesticides and the most effective bio-pesticide will be tested in paper four,’ she explained.

In her research, Kasambala boldly touches on insects in relation to climate change, arguing that insects are very sensitive to changes in temperature, relative humidity, light and precipitation just like all other living things. "Changes in climate in combination with other human activities can either favour insects were non-pest insects become pests, pest outbreaks or inhibit their development. Some insects are used as bio-indicators of the state of the environmental pollution, it is therefore important to have knowledge on these changes, such knowledge will better prepared Malawi incase of an outbreak or the raise of foreign pests" said Kasambala.

Malawi Government document on integrated pest management released in 2012 stipulates that, all pesticides in Malawi are imported and that the sugar industry is the third largest consumer of pesticides in Malawi.

Pesticides results in death of non-target organisms, accumulation of pesticides in food chains and in mammalian tissues leading to cancers since many pesticides are potential carcinogens



Written by Christie Kang'ombe