The present Decision Support System for Insect and Mite Pests of Quarantine Significance to India has been developed under the Emeritus Scientist Scheme, ICAR, funded project entitled Development of Decision Support System for Insect and Mite Pests of Quarantine Significance to India. The work under the project was initiated in 2018.
The movement of agricultural commodities globally, has a significant role in diversifying Indian agriculture and boosting the production. However, such movements especially under the liberalized WTO regime carries the risk of inadvertent introduction of exotic pests to new habitats and, if not regulated may prove disastrous and pose a biosecurity threat to our agriculture. At present, India, imports agricultural commodities including germplasm as per the provisions of Plant Quarantine (Regulation of Import into India) Order 2003 issued under the Destructive Insect and Pests Act, (DIP Act) 1914 promulgated by the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare (MoA & FW), Government of India, which came into force with effect from April 1, 2004. At national level, ICAR- National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources (NBPGR) is a nodal institute to issue Import Permit (IP), undertake quarantine of germplasm including transgenics and issue Phytosanitary Certificate (PSC) for material under exchange meant for research both by public and private sectors, while the bulk imports for consumption and sowing/ planting material are dealt by Directorate of Plant Protection, Quarantine and Storage (DPPQS).
There are several examples of international spread of pests along with the movement of infested plant material, and India also has its share of introduced pests. During quarantine processing, pests of quarantine significance have been intercepted and some of which are repeatedly intercepted. Therefore, phytosanitary measures are extremely important to facilitate safe import of plants and plant products. To facilitate trade, the Agreement on Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures of WTO requires the countries to have uniform phytosanitary standards. The International Plant Protection Convention (IPPC) has developed International Standards for Phytosanitary Measures (ISPM). Of these the standards on pest risk analysis (PRA) are given in ISPM-2, ISPM-11 and ISPM- 21 and in compliance, the National Standards on PRA have also been developed. Under the SPS Agreement scientific evidence is required to substantiate claims regarding the presence or absence of pests. India being a country of diverse ecological conditions has a wide spectrum of insect pest population reported from various regions, yet, there are several species/ biotypes not recorded from India and they need to be looked for in imported material during quarantine.
There are several pests, besides the ones listed in PQ Order, which are likely to accompany the plant material through different pathways. The information on different aspects of regulated and non-regulated insect and mite pests is scattered in different research journals, periodicals, books, databases and other publications. There is no single platform with documentation of information for easy access and retrieval in the desired form for its proper utilization. Therefore, an attempt has been made to consolidate the available information on pests of quarantine significance with respect to their global distribution, host range, pathway of introduction, other aspects related to biology, survival and spread, economic impact and phytosanitary risk which are essential components of risk analysis. The collected information has been used to categorize these pests as: i) not reported from India, ii) having limited distribution, iii) having wide host-range, iv) causing economic yield losses and v) having physiological races. This data would be linked with the pests listed under the various Schedules (IV, V and VI) of Plant Quarantine (Regulation of Import into India) Order, 2003. Schedule IV deals with the import of commodities prohibited from specific countries; Schedule V deals with plants and plant material, imports of which are restricted and permissible only by authorized institutions with additional declarations and subject to special conditions and Schedule VI deals with plant/ plant material to be permitted for import with additional declarations and special conditions. Further, the scope of this information will be extended to include the pests of quarantine significance intercepted and impact analysis in case the few pests, if gets introduced in the country.
Based on the information generated from the available literature on various aspects of insect and mite pests, a knowledge based, user-friendly, Decision Support System (DSS) is developed to serve as a tool for plant quarantine officials, importers, exporters, researchers etc. and to strengthen their quarantine capacity to meet international obligations.
Thus, the work under the project was carried out with the following specific objectives
- Collection, compilation and documentation of the information available from various sources on defined parameters (viz. common/scientific name, classification, pathway of introduction, biology, host range, geographical distribution, economic significance, phytosanitary risk, detection techniques, control measures etc.) of insect and mite pests of quarantine significance to India.
- Impact analysis of selected insect and mite pests of quarantine significance if introduced into India.
- Development of a web-enabled, interactive Decision Support System on major insect and mite pests of quarantine significance to India for easy access and retrieval.
- Development of multi-media enabled applications including mobile app based on DSS to access consolidated information with respect to crop, country and pests.
The present database includes information on total of 1740 pests viz., 1400 insects and 340 mites which may accompany the plant material through 49 pathways including seed, fruits, seedling, cuttings, budwoods, bark, rhizomes, suckers, rooted plants etc. Of these, 1653 are not reported from India and 87 are reported in India.
The pests reported from India included in the Database are those, which are Regulated as per Plant Quarantine Order, 2003 and its Amendments or have restricted distribution in India. There are 542 insect and mite pests regulated in India as per the provisions of Schedules IV, V and VI of Plant Quarantine (Regulation of Import into India) 2003 and its Amendments. Besides, 1198 are non-regulated quarantine insect and mite pests, which are likely to accompany the plant material through different pathways./p>
There are 10 Insect orders comprising 1400 pest species of quarantine significance. These comprise (in order of significance with respect to number of species) viz., Coleoptera (713 species), Lepidoptera (285), Hemiptera (179), Diptera (108), Hymenoptera (55), Thysanoptera (24), Orthoptera (22), Isoptera (12), Psocoptera (1) and Dermaptera (1).
The largest number of insect pests is in the Order Coleoptera with 713 species in 26 families. Bruchidae is the largest family with 351 pest species. Bruchids pose a high quarantine risk as these develop inside the seed without showing any external symptoms of its presence within and hence can only be detected through a non-destructive, specialized technique of X-ray radiography. There are 340 plant genera, the seeds of which are known to carry hidden infestation and need to be subjected to X-ray screening.
Among the mites (Arachnida: Acari), family Tetranychidae has largest number of phytophagous mites (318). This includes mite pests belonging to 59 genera viz., Tetranychus (89), Oligonychus (48), Eotetranycgus (44), Bryobia (36), Schizotetranychus (31), Paratetranychus (12), Eurytetranychus (10), Eutetetranychus (10), Petrobia (8), Aplonobia and Monoceronychus (7), Neotetranychus (6), Mononychellus (5). Other genera are with 1-2 species of quarantine significance.
Information has been collected from available sources on various phytosanitary aspects of insects and mites in order to assess the level of risk prior to import, so as to facilitate their release after quarantine in a safer and more efficient manner. Pests with wide host range and wide geographical distribution pose significant/ high quarantine risk due to high probability of establishment and spread.
Further, the scope of this information has been extended to include the pests of quarantine significance intercepted in quarantine in India. These include the ones intercepted in germplasm at ICAR-NBPGR and those intercepted in commodities (bulk material for sowing/ consumption) at Directorate of Plant Protection, Quarantine & Storage.
Numbers of insect pests have been intercepted in India during the quarantine of plant material and there are success stories of preventing the introduction of deadly exotic pests into the country. In spite the stringent quarantine measures, some of the pests have escaped quarantine and got introduced into the country. Impact analysis of insects (3) and mite (1) of quarantine significance, introduced into India in the recent years has been done based on the available information. The consolidated information has been compiled with respect to Spodoptera frugiperda (Fall armyworm); Tuta absoluta (Tomato pin worm); Paracoccus marginatus (Papaya mealybug); Eriophyes guerreronis (Coconut mite) introduced into India in 2018,2014, 2007 and 1995 respectively.
Based on information generated on various aspects, a web-enabled, knowledge based, user-friendly, interactive Decision Support System and Mobile App on major insect and mite pests of quarantine significance to India has been developed. It would give easy access to the available world information and facilitate retrieval of pest specific, crop specific and country specific information; analysing the risk in import of a particular crop from the source country and profile of pest of quarantine significance which may accompany the plant material from different countries. It would serve as a tool for plant quarantine officials, importers, exporters, researchers to meet the international obligations and get the support during exchange of plants and planting material. It will be useful at the port of entry in facilitating the trade under WTO regime while taking decisions on phytosanitary aspects.
A Web-enabled database compatible with all the operating systems such as android, window etc. on insect and mite pests of quarantine significance developed has been and commissioned on the website of ICAR-NBPGR.
Principal investigator
Dr. Shashi Bhalla, Emeritus Scientist
Project Staff
Dr. Shama Parveen, Research Associate
Acknowledgements
The information, photographs collected from various sources and used in the Database and cited are duly acknowledged.
The PI and Project Staff express their sincere gratitude to Dr. Kuldeep Singh, former Director, ICAR-NBPGR for his kind help, encouragement and support in getting the project. We gratefully acknowledge the constant support of Dr. SC Dubey, former Head, Division of Plant Quarantine and Dr. Kavita Gupta, Principal Scientist, Division of Plant Quarantine and Officer Incharge, PME Cell, ICAR-NBPGR in providing the facilities and guidance, and without them this work would not have been possible. The kind support of Sh. Ashok Kumar, Director, ICAR-NBPGR, and Dr. V Celia Chalam, Head, Division of Plant Quarantine is gratefully acknowledged.
We are very thankful to Dr. Sunil Archak, Officer Incharge, AKMU, Sh. Rajeev Gambhir, Chief Technical Officer, AKMU and Sh. Ratnesh Tiwari, Research Associate, AKMU for their technical guidance and support in the development of “Decision Support System of Pests of Quarantine Significance to India”.
The kind support of staff of Administration, Accounts, Audit sections and Director’ Cell of ICAR-NBPGR is duly acknowledged.
We thank Mr. Vikas Kumar and Ms. Arti, who helped us in several ways during the Project period.
We express our sincere thanks to the Education Division of Indian Council of Agricultural Research for providing the financial support
Disclaimer
The information compiled in the database is based on available published literature and is subject to change in future. More information available with any user may kindly be provided to update the database which will be duly acknowledged.