To counter invasive agricultural pests, India has embraced classical biological control, a sustainable approach involving the strategic import of natural enemies parasites, predators, or pathogens. The goal isn’t eradication, but maintaining pest populations below damaging thresholds through ecological balance. 

In the early 2020s, when cassava fields faced severe infestation from cassava mealybug, reminiscent of Africa’s devastating crisis in the 1970s, India avoided chemicals. Instead, researchers imported the parasitoid wasp Anagyrus lopezi to effectively regulate mealybug populations. This move was spearheaded by the National Bureau of Agricultural Insect Resources (NBAIR), the ICAR body authorized to import biocontrol agents.

Classical biological control where a natural enemy from a pest’s native range is introduced to suppress the invader is a time-tested method integrated into modern Integrated Pest Management (IPM) strategies. While successful in past cases (like cassava mealybug control in Africa and other parts of Asia), these introductions require careful quarantine, ecological testing, and monitoring to prevent unintended impacts on non-target species.