Grisel Monje: "We have promising results in the control of Lobesia botrana through sexual confounders. This 2015-2016 campaign will intensify its implementation "
At this moment the National Program of Lobesia botrana (PNLb) is practically finishing the period of the third flight of the insect, and as it has been analyzed and reported, this insect develops three flights in Chile, so it would be completing the monitoring and control work corresponding to the 2014-2015 season. To know the results about the season that leaves us and future challenges in order to control and eradicate this moth from the Chilean territory, SimFRUIT spoke with the Executive Director of the Lobesia botrana National Program of the Agricultural and Livestock Service, SAG, Grisel Monje.
"In general we can say that we fully met what we had assumed as SAG, in terms of having the entire surveillance system operational, expanding it to more regions, increasing the number of specific pheromone traps for the males of the insect, mainly in crops new with mandatory control as is the case of blueberries and plums. All this has allowed us to have a clearer vision this season regarding what is happening with this plague in these two species of fruit, and may also continue with the intensive surveillance, which we developed some years ago, on vines", Monk said.
On the other hand, the professional indicated that during the period that is ending intensified, also, the audits aimed at the control of the use of products, which must be carried out by producers with crops that are within the control areas. The audits were conducted in person, blended and also through documentary reviews of phytosanitary programs, and in some cases the analysis of multiresiduos was included.
"A tool that we consider fundamental in this Program is the use of sexual confounders, for this reason, a significant amount of the additional budget that we received during the 2014, was destined to be able to increase the surface that the SAG covered with sexual confusers, increasing in the areas from 10.000 to 20.000 hectares, and in urban areas from approximately 1.400 hectares to more than 6 thousand"Said the Program Director.
He also said that the results obtained with the use of this tool have been positive. "The results are very promising so far, because in the areas where we have installed the confounders there have been significant declines in the populations detected in the traps. Now we are also evaluating whether the installation of sexual confusions also has an incidence in immature states, that is, that we do not find larvae, eggs or pupal stages in the clusters, vines, blueberries and plums, which we are analyzing in order to have a greater a certainty about it".
Monk added: "What we have visualized so far is that the control we have through the products, which in general we can evaluate at a medium level, the sexual confounder is not less than that, that is, basically we have a control through of sexual confusers that could be very similar or in some areas far superior to that offered by product control".
Challenges
"What we have left now is to finish evaluating the season, but we are already starting joint public-private work, to elaborate what is going to be the 2015-2016 strategy", The agronomist engineer pointed out.
As for what is coming for this next season, Grisel Monje indicated: "We can advance that with the additional resources that were given for this year, about 9 one billion pesos, an important part of them will be destined to reinforce even more the areas where sexual confusers will be installed, in principle increasing to 30 thousand hectares in the zones We also hope that the private sector will also invest in the installation of these confusers, in order to reach a surface similar to that covered by the State, thus reaching coverage of an area close to the 60 thousand hectares for the next season".
Source: SimFruit
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