{"id":69805,"date":"2025-10-23T13:40:38","date_gmt":"2025-10-23T08:10:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=69805"},"modified":"2025-10-23T13:40:38","modified_gmt":"2025-10-23T08:10:38","slug":"anagyrus-lopezi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/anagyrus-lopezi\/","title":{"rendered":"Anagyrus lopezi"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><b>Anagyrus lopezi<\/b><b> Latest News<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Two years after scientists from the National Bureau of Agricultural Insect Resources (NBAIR), released a tiny parasitic wasp Anagyrus lopezi into South India\u2019s tapioca fields, the crop that once faced near devastation from an invasive pest is now thriving again.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>About <\/b><b>Anagyrus lopezi<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is a tiny <\/span><b>parasitic wasp which <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">specifically targets the <\/span><b>cassava mealybug.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Working:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> The wasp lays its <\/span><b>eggs inside the pest,<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and the developing larvae consume it from within, naturally reducing mealybug numbers without harming other crops.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The parasitoids spread naturally <\/span><b>beyond the release points, up to 30\u201340 km<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, gradually bringing the mealybug population under control.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It was imported from the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), <\/span><b>Benin, West Africa.<\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Key Facts about Tapioca (Cassava)<\/span><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is a major <\/span><b>horticulture crop<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> cultivated in <\/span><b>Tamil Nadu, Kerala, and Puducherry.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is cultivated throughout the tropical world for its tuberous roots, from which cassava flour, breads, tapioca, a laundry starch, and an alcoholic beverage are derived.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3><b>Climatic Conditions Required for Tapioca<\/b><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Soil:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Any <\/span><b>well-drained soil,<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> preferably red lateritic loamy soil.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Climate:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> It thrives best in a tropical, warm, humid climate<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Rainfall:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Well-distributed rainfall of over <\/span><b>100 cm per annum.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This crop can be cultivated upto an <\/span><b>elevation of 1000 m.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">All parts of cassava\/tapioca \u2013 leaves, stem, tuber and rind \u2013 contain the compounds called c<\/span><b>yanogenic glucosides (CNGs).<\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Source: <\/b><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thehindu.com\/news\/national\/karnataka\/from-devastation-to-recovery-how-a-parasitic-wasp-saved-south-indias-tapioca-crops\/article70189313.ece\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">TH<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Anagyrus lopezi is a small parasitic wasp introduced to control the cassava mealybug, helping protect cassava crops and improve agricultural productivity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":69850,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[3353],"class_list":{"0":"post-69805","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","8":"tag-anagyrus-lopezi","9":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69805","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=69805"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69805\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/69850"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69805"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=69805"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=69805"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}