REQUEST FOR SPECIFIC INFORMATION ON /PARTHENIUM/ /HYSTEROPHORUS/ FOR SOUTH AFRICA

/Parthenium hysterophorus /is invading the eastern parts of southern Africa at an alarming rate. There are already large infestations in Mozambique and Swaziland. The effect of these recent invasions are not yet fully realized and we first need a disaster before the authorities and politicians will react.

GISP (Global Invasive Species Programme) has recently sponsored a small desktop project aimed at evaluating the potential impact of Parthenium in southern Africa. This study has to be completed by the end of January 2007 and will fully rely on existing published and unpublished information from countries that have been fighting the weed for many years, being of course mainly India and Australia. In many ways, the Parthenium problem in southern Africa corresponds more to the Indian situation.

We have already scanned most of the more than 1000 references on Parthenium and very useful information came to light that can be fed into the bioeconomic models that we intend to use to predict the consequences of Parthenium invasion in southern Africa.

Unfortunately there is still important information missing. Firstly, it was not possible to obtain important reprints of articles published in obscure journals or in conference proceedings and, secondly, there is little quantitative data available on the economic impacts of Parthenium on health, biodiversity, yield losses and grazing capacity.

I would appreciate it if you could provide me with information or identify a publication/report/contact person that could give me more information on the following subjects regarding Parthenium:"

1) some quantitative data on the effect/cost on human health, e.g. what is the estimated percentage of people in say Bangalore (or any other region) suffering from dermatitis (AECD) or from allergic rhinitis or bronchitis caused by Parthenium, and approximately how many days will affected people stay away from work? What is the average cost of medical treatment of affected people?

2) There is a total lack of any quantitative data on the impact of

Parthenium invasions on biodiversity e.g. species loss or negative impacts on ecological processes. .

3) What is the approximate loss/reduction expressed as a percentage of domestic herbivores caused by Parthenium invasion of natural pastures? There is some information on the effect of Parthenium on cattle and buffalos but it does not give an idea what this is costing the country/district/state. There is some useful information available from Australia.

4) The cost of control: There is much anecdotal information on the

impact of Parthenium on various crop yields but not much of it is quantitative data, or the data is given in Rs of 20 years ago which is difficult to extrapolate to South African conditions. What I need is for example man-hours needed to clear 1 ha of various densities of Parthenium weed in crops/roadsides/open spaces etc. It would also help if it can be stated that a certain crop needs for example two additional treatements of a certain herbicide to provide effective control. There are also not many publications that give crop losses related to Parthenium densities. The excellent paper of Tamado et al 2002 in the J. of Pest management is an excellent example of what is needed.

5) There is much information on the potential uses of Parthenium e.g. as biopesticides, biogas,green manure etc. Is it possible to obtain information on any viable businesses that have developed from these benefits or are there farmers that utilize these beneficial properties on a large scale?

I realize that it will not be easy to provide answers to all these questions but any information, including unpublished information but coming from a reliable source, will be most welcome.

I received some useful information from Australia (Queensland)

but again, this applies almost exclusively to large commercial farmers In South Africa we also have a large component of subsistence (small-scale) farmers and the Indian situation could also be applicable to these farmers.

This study is meant to alert politicians of the looming threat and that

actions need to be put in place NOW and not in 10 years time. Africa as

a whole is extremely vulnerable and the Indian experience will be of

much value to us.

I will be most grateful for any information.

Kind regards

Helmuth Zimmermann

helmuthzim@netactive.co.za

www.hza.co.za <http://www.hza.co.za/>

P/a Plant Protection Research Institute

Weeds Research

Private Bag X134

Queenswood, Pretoria

0121

Fax +27 12 329 3278