Abstract
Storage insect pests cause significant losses of food legumes particularly in the Tropics and the Sub-tropics. The most important species of storage insect pests of food legumes include Callosobruchus chinensis, C. maculatus, C. analis, Acanthoscelides obtectus, Bruchus incarnatus, B. rufimanus, B. dentipes, B. quinqueguttatus, B. emarginatus, B. ervi, B. lentis and B. pisorum. Effective post-harvest insect pest control measures should constitute part of the overall crop husbandry practices for preserving the quality of produce. Storage insect pests are commonly controlled using chemical insecticides which, however, bear many drawbacks related to high cost, environmental pollution and food safety risks. Breeding legume crops to improve their resistance against storage insect pests, although having technical limitations, is the best way of overcoming these disadvantages in an environment-friendly manner. In this paper, we present the findings of our extensive reviews on the potential of breeding resistant varieties of food legumes against storage insect pests along with the major technical limitations one would likely encounter and the prospective ways of tackling them.
Highlights
Storage insect pests cause serious losses to all legume crops in both quality and quantity, in the Tropics and Sub-tropics where temperatures and relative humidity are high
The preceding discussion shows that storage insect pests are among the real challenges to agricultural researchers in general and to entomologists and plant breeders in particular
There is no doubt that the breeding of productive genotypes with better genetic resistance to storage insect pests could be one of the alternatives to address problems of storage insect pests in food legumes
Summary
Storage insect pests cause serious losses to all legume crops in both quality and quantity, in the Tropics and Sub-tropics where temperatures and relative humidity are high. Several options have proved effective in controlling storage insect pests; including environmental manipulations to discourage their growth, development and reproduction. Such environmental manipulations can be attained by employing a number of control measures like the use of chemical insecticides and cultural and physical control methods. Most of the breeding programs pursued hitherto focus more on improving seed yield and quality than improving resistance against storage insect pests. This is despite the importance of the latter beyond the direct losses to the farmer along the product value chain to the consumer, both rural and urban. Crops for resistance against storage insect pests and some possible ways to overcome the limitations based on extensive reviews of past breeding programs
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