Argentina: Successful control campaign for fruit fly in the blueberry of the Mesopotamian region
An unusual growth of the fruit fly population in the area of Mesopotamia Argentina as a result of the registered catches in citrus, had generated alarm at the beginning of the harvest of this 2015 among producers of blueberries of the region.
Thanks to that warning, and to the precautions taken in time, a population decline in the presence of the insect in the area could already be seen, and the harvest of the fruit is advancing at a good pace.
Among the precautions taken, the Association of Blueberry Producers of Mesopotamia Argentina (APAMA) began a control plan that included various actions to control and monitor the pest. Among the actions developed, the producers were represented in the Regional Commission of PROCEM NEA; a publicity campaign was launched to recognize the insect; a monitoring network was installed in the different production areas of Mesopotamia; and massive cheating was incorporated into the production system as a control tactic.
This week, a new action was finalized that consisted of the delivery to regional producers of the product known as Spinosad, an insecticide that will reinforce the terrestrial control of the pest. The delivery of the doses was in charge of SENASA and was managed and coordinated by APAMA in conjunction with the general director of Agriculture of the Ministry of Production of the province of Entre Ríos, Elena Rosales.
The application of this product will help control the insect in more than five hundred hectares of the area, almost 50% of the area implanted in the Concordia Department.
The delivery of the product was made this Monday in Chajarí, within the framework of the Fly Control and Eradication Program (PROCEM) of SENASA, with the presence of the engineer Carlos Morilla -of SENASA- and the representatives of the technical team of APAMA, the doctor Micaela Heredia and engineer Darío Azcárate, the latter also on behalf of the company Blueberries, at whose headquarters the products will be collected for later distribution.
"From APAMA we are coordinating a plan for monitoring and mitigation of the fruit fly for the cultivation of blueberries in the NEA, given that exclusive chemical control is not a sustainable solution in the long term"said Heredia.
"There are restrictions and levels of tolerance to the use of pesticides, so it is relevant to search for different tactics and alternative strategies that contemplate both the ecology of the insect, environmental conditions and the demands of international markets"He said.
To administer and distribute the doses provided by SENASA, APAMA previously conducted a census. Blueberry producers already registered can withdraw their dose at the headquarters of the company Blueberries located in Route 14 km 245 of Colonia Ayuí - Dept. Concordia, from this Wednesday, previous coordination with the engineer Azcárate. -
Source: APAMA
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