The soybean aphid, Aphis glycines, present

Identification:The soybean aphid is a small aphid, pale yellow in life, with black siphunculi and pale cauda (See Pic). No other aphid living on soybeans has the same combination of size and colour. Other species of aphids on legumes that might be confused with it are Aphis gossypii (the cotton aphid) which has a shorter, dark cauda and Aphis craccivora (the cowpea aphid) which has a black patch on the back of the wingless adults.
Known Hosts:Overseas: In China and Japan, the soybean aphid alternates between Rhamnus species (Family Rhamnaceae) and certain legumes, mainly soybean and species of Glycine but also recorded from species of Pueraria and Desmodium (Blackman et al. 1997).In Australia, the aphid has so far only been found on soybeans.
Damage:A. glycines is capable of causing significant reduction in growth and seed production in soybeans. A study by Wang et al. (1996) in China found that seed yields were reduced by 27.8% and plant height decreased by 20.2 cm in infested plants as compared with the control.

The soybean aphid is a known vector of a number of plant virus diseases, including abaca mosaic, soyabean mosaic, soyabean stunt, beet mosaic, millet red leaf, mungbean mosaic, bean yellow mosaic and Indonesian soybean dwarf. A. glycines has been found to transmit peanut mottle virus in ground nuts in Indonesia.

In Australia experience with soybean aphid is very new. Known infestations in crops observed are distributed sporadically through a paddock and in quite small areas (1m²). Thus they can be difficult to detect. Plant damage is in the form of leaf distortion (where very dense aphid populations occur) and severe vigour loss - see photographs above.

Life Cycle:The life cycle is described in Japan by Takahashi et al (1993) and in China by Wang, et al. (1962). Studies undertaken in Taiwan, Korea and Japan indicate that the optimum temperatures for the aphid are 20-24°C (see Hirano, et al. 1996). Aphid densities peak in the vegetative plant stage and decline rapidly afterwards or towards the flowering stage.
Natural Enemies:Predators: Hoverfly larvae (Family Syrphidae) and ladybird larvae (Family Coccinellidae) have been shown to play a role in suppression of A. glycines populations in soybeans (Berg, et al. 1997).
Parasites: A number of parasitoids are known to be effective in helping to control numbers of the aphid. The braconid wasps Aphidius cingulatus, Ephedrus persicae and Ephedrus plagiator are effective primary parasitoids in Korea (Chang et al. 1994). Wang and Ba (1998) reviewed options for cultural and biological control of A. glycines.
Distribution:Overseas: China, Japan, far eastern Russia, Korea, Thailand, Borneo, Malaya, the Philippines, Indonesia.

In Australia, the species has been found in NSW and Queensland. In NSW this includes the North Coast, Northern Tablelands and Forbes in the Central West. In Queensland, soybean aphid has been found in most soybean areas from Bundaberg to SE Qld, including the Darling Downs.

Indonesia Agriculture

About 45% of Indonesian workers are engaged in agriculture, which accounts for 17% of GDP in 2001. Some 31 million ha (76.6 million acres) are under cultivation, with 35% to 40% of the cultivated land devoted to the production of export crops. Some 60% of the country's cultivated land is in Java.

There are three main types of farming: smallholder farming (mostly rice), smallholder cash cropping, and about 1,800 large foreign-owned or privately owned estates, the latter two producing export crops.

Small-scale farming is usually carried out on modest plots—those in Java average about 0.8–1 ha (2–2.5 acres)—often without benefit of modern tools and methods, good seed, or fertilizer. Although rice, vegetables, and fruit constitute the bulk of the small farmer's crops, about 20% of output is in cash crops for export, the chief of which is rubber. Of the estategrown crops, rubber, tobacco, sugar, palm oil, hard fiber, coffee, tea, cocoa, and cinchona are the most important. Dutch, United Kingdom, United States, French, and Belgian capital financed estate agriculture in colonial times, with the Dutch share being the largest. Management of Dutch interests was taken over by the Indonesian government in December 1957; in 1964, the 104 UK-o

perated plantations were confiscated without any compensation, and Indonesian managers were appointed. The following year, the US-operated p

lantations were expropriated, and all foreign plantations were placed under the control and supervision of the Indonesian government. In

1967, some of the estates seized in 1965, including the US-leased rubber plantations, were returned, but the majority were retained by the government.

Because the population is rapidly increasing, the government seeks to achieve food self-sufficiency through expansion of arab

le acreage, improved farm techniques (especially the use of fertilizers and improved seeds), extensio

n of irrigation facilities, and expanded training for farmers. Production of rice, the staple food, has been gradually increasing, and production comes close to meeting domestic requirements. This increase has resulted less from extension of cultivated area through the government's resettlement policy than from

expanded use of irrigation, fertilizers, and pesticides and cultivation of high-yielding hybrid rice, espec

ially insect-resistant hybrids. It also reflects the success of the government's "mass guidance" program, which provides technical assistance, easy credit terms, and marketing support through a system of village cooperatives. Additional support was provided by the National Logistics Board, which is responsible for price regulation and the national rice-rationing programs. Due to the rapid growth of the industrial sector, the agricultural contribution to GDP is expected to decline to 11.8% by 2003.

Rice is the primary staple crop; production in 2001 totaled 50,461,000 tons. Other staple crops in 1999 included cassava (15,422,000 tons), corn (9,139,000 tons), and sweet potato (1,928,000 tons). Vegetable production in 2000 included 1,366,410 tons of cabbages, 772,818 tons of shallots, and 454,815 tons of mustard greens. Sugar is the largest commercial crop, w

ith production reaching 26,000,000 tons in 1999. About 1,564,000 tons of rubber were produced in 1999, as compared with about 648,400 in 1964. Faced with the prospect of declining yields, the government began an extensive replanting and rehabilitation program in 1981. In 2001/02, Indonesia was the world's fourth largest producer of coffee (after Brazil, Colombia, and Viet Nam); some 369,600 tons of coffee were grown that year, as compared with 188,900 tons in 1972 and an annual average of 120,400 tons during 1960–65. Indonesia is the world's second-largest producer of palm oil (after Malaysia); 9.1 million tons were produced in 2001/02. Palm kernels (2.68 million tons in 2001/02) and copra (1.36 million tons in 2001/02) are also important export crops.

Agriculture Futures Mostly Rise

A barren, treeless island in the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard may prove to be the last, best hope of agriculture in warmer, more fertile parts of the world. The first batch of 100 million of the most important agricultural seeds were placed into the doomsday repository there today. The Svalbard Global Seed Vault is buried deep within a frozen mountainside near the Norwegian town of Longyearbyen that perpetually cools it to –18 degrees Celsius (–0.4 degree Fahrenheit) with or without permafrost. Built to withstand all foreseeable disasters, including a recent earthquake that was the biggest in Norwegian history, it has room to protect at least 4.5 million samples (2.25 billion seeds) in its three man-made caverns.

"The opening of the seed vault marks a historic turning point in safeguarding the world's crop diversity," says Cary Fowler, executive director of the Rome-based Global Crop Diversity Trust, which led the project. "Crop diversity will soon prove to be our most potent and indispensable resource for addressing climate change, water and energy supply constraints, and for meeting the food needs of a growing population." Rice was the first staple to be stored in the vault—strains from 104 countries around the globe. Sealed in airtight foil packages and encased in boxes, the seeds will remain viable but dormant in the low temperature and humidity conditions.

Wheat, maize, potato, bean and even watermelon seeds will be placed in Svalbard in coming weeks. All told, 268,000 different varieties from Canada, Columbia, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan, the Philippines and Syria, among others, will be the first to enter the deep freeze.

The vault is designed to protect against global-scale disasters—human or natural—that could potentially wipe out agriculture. Similar local seed banks have allowed farmers to recover from recent wars in Afghanistan and Iraq as well as provided new varieties capable of growing in changed conditions, such as rice strains that thrive in fields that had been inundated with saltwater after the Asian tsunami in 2004.

"Gene banks are not seed museums but the repositories of vital, living resources that are used almost every day in the never-ending battle against major threats to food production," says Emile Frison, director general of Bioversity International. "We're going to need this diversity to breed new varieties that can adapt to climate change, new diseases and other rapidly emerging threats."

Such gene banks are themselves vulnerable. For example, a typhoon in 2006 wiped out the Philippines's national rice seed repository. "Unfortunately, these kinds of national gene bank horror stories are fairly common," Fowler says.

The Svalbard Global Seed Vault is meant to be the backup of last resort, stocked with copies of different crops from national seed storage facilities. For example, the U.S. Department of Agriculture's National Germplasm System plans to send more than a million seeds to the vault, including sweet pepper, squash and tomatoes.

In the vault's cold isolation, the seeds can keep for hundreds and thousands of years—the grain sorghum alone can last for 20,000 years—effectively allowing agriculture to be restarted in the event of a global calamity, such as nuclear war or catastrophic climate change. But the vault will require some vestiges of human civilization to persist, if only to build the transportation to bring the seeds back out of their new icy home.

"The world's crop gene pool contained in seeds is essential for increasing crop productivity; mitigating climate change, pests and diseases; and ensuring a genetic resource base for the future," said Jacques Diouf, director general of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, in remarks prior to the opening of the vault. "Seeds are the vehicle of life."