SWEDISH SOUTH ASIAN STUDIES NETWORK

---

Department of Ecology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU), Uppsala:

Postal address: Institutionen för Ekologi, SLU, Box 7044, SE-750 07 Uppsala, Sweden
Visiting address: Ulls väg 16/Ulls väg 18
Web page: http://www.ekol.slu.se/

Contact person: Professor Emeritus Jan Pettersson, phone: +46 (0)18 67 23 43. Personal web page.

Research connected to South Asia

Jan Pettersson has been Professor of Agricultural Entomology at the Dept. of Entomology, that was amalgamated into the Dept. of Ecology a few years ago. Prof. Pettersson has been involved in a major research project on ”Environmentally acceptable control of pests infesting vegetable plots in tea areas”, in collaboration with research institutions in Sri Lanka (represented by Prof. N. Savitri Kumar, Senior Professor and Head, Department of Chemistry, University of Peradeniya). Other researchers involved in the project at SLU are Robert Glinwood and Velemir Ninkovic. Other researchers involved on the Srilankan side are Sarath Abeysinghe and Premaratne Bandara from the Horticulture Crop Research and Development Institute in Peradeniya.
The project was grown out of a previous Sida/SAREC funded Swedish-Srilankan collaboration project on Biochemical Pest Control that was run by the same main partners during the period 1994–2002. The Project leader was Vijaya Kumar, Senior Professor and Head of the Dept of Chemistry, University of Peradeniya
In November 2002 the new project was given a Swedish Research Links (Asian–Swedish research partnership programme) grant on 600 000 SEK for three years (2003-05) by Sida and the Swedish Research Council. See the full list of South Asia related projects that were given grants.

Sri Lankan tea estate, showing plots where tea workers grow vegetables.

Project description: The objective is to find environmentally acceptable methods for the control for four pests infesting vegetable plots worked on by the tea community in Sri Lanka. The present use of conventional pesticides poses a threat to the tea export market and a demand that vegetable cultivation be stopped. The focus of the project would be on the identification and development of methods based on biopesticides and semiochemicals, which could be used to support an integrated pest control strategy. The project would ensure the continued availability of vegetable growing as an acceptable means of improving tea worker incomes and thereby contribute to increase the incomes and standards of living of this impoverished section of Sri Lankan society.
The expertise on semiochemicals in Uppsala will be made available to Sri Lankan researchers and part of the bioassay work will be carried out in Sweden.

In December 2008, Prof. Jan Pettersson, Prof. Savitri Kumar and their colleagues in the research project published an article based on the results from their research in Currents, Volume 44/45, a magazine from the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences. The article is titled ”Sustainable plant protection for increased food security in a changing climate”. Read the article (as a pdf-file).

• Recent publications on shot-hole borer attacks on tea:
Karunaratne, W. Subodhi; Kumar, Vijaya; Pettersson, Jan; Savitri Kumar, N: Response of the shot-hole borer of tea, Xyleborus fornicatus (Coleoptera: Scolytidae) to conspecifics and plant semiochemicals. Acta Agriculturae Scandinavica, B, Volume 58, Number 4, December 2008 , pp. 345-351 (7)

W. Subodhi Karunaratne; Vijaya Kumar; Jan Pettersson; N. Savitri Kumar: Density dependence and induced resistance or behavioural response of the shot-hole borer of tea, Xyleborus fornicatus (Coleoptera:Scolytidae) to conspecifics and plant odours. Acta Agriculturae Scandinavica, Section B - Plant Soil Science Vol 58 1-5 October 2008.