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Chile | Vegetable Health
Plant health management in Rapa Nui Inia La Cruz has been developing a project d for two years through which farmers are trained in the use of different tools for the integrated biointensive management of pests that damage important crops on the island. 5/25/2020
 Natalia Olivares, entomologist, during one of the trips to the island.
The activities committed in the framework of the project "Integrated Biointensive Pest Management with family fruit and vegetable producers in Rapa Nui" do not stop on the Island. Two years ago we have established demonstration plots with leading farmers on the island, who have been accompanied by the INIA team and mainly the field professional, Ignacio Ahumada, who is permanently on the island. These leading farmers have become references for the residents of their sectors and that is creating a radius of action in such a way that knowledge begins to amplify. Natalia Olivares Pacheco, project manager affirms that, “pest management without the use of conventional pesticides is a challenge at the national level. There is an increasing awareness that the production of vegetables and fruit on the island requires maintaining a phytosanitary condition in accordance with the care of the environment, human health and uncontaminated soil / water resources ”. This is a project that has the support of the Foundation for Agrarian Innovation (FIA) and the Institute of Agricultural Development (INDAP) and its purpose is to reduce the applications of agrochemicals to vegetables and fruit in Rapa Nui. Here INIA La Cruz has a technical team that is responsible for complying with each of the stages contemplated in the project and with different demonstration units or farms in the fields of the vegetable producers themselves. The team of this initiative is also made up of Aart Osman, Alejandro Morán and Ignacio Ahumada. This project works with the cultivation of sweet potato, banana and pineapple, mainly of the Easter variety since it is one of the most demanded fruit species on the island market, due to its color, sweetness, flavor and aroma. For the island's producers, the consumption of plantain and sweet potatoes is an important source of food, so the interest in keeping pests at bay has allowed control measures to advance. Let us now recall the most important achievements of this project: Achievement 1 - Release of a beneficial insect equivalent to more than 2,000 mealybugs ladybird of the Cryptolaemus montrouzieri species to reduce the damage that the obscure mealybugs cause on the pineapple crop. This was a highly relevant achievement in the use of biological pest control in Rapa Nui as it was the first release from this natural enemy. Biological control of the house fly had previously been carried out, a program that extended to other fruit and vegetable pests for more than 10 years in the 1980s. The mealybug ladybird Cryptolaemus montrouzieri is a predator that acts on some species of obscure mealybugs and is expected to reduce the populations of the pest and achieve a balance between both species. Natalia Olivares, director of this project announced that “an evaluation of the predation effect of C. montrouzieri, on obscure mealybugs present in the cultivation of pineapple, is being carried out on different farmers in the island area. Clearly, this work is a relevant contribution to Rapa Nui, since the more environmentally friendly strategies are used, the more efficient and sustainable is pest management. ” Achievement 2 - First application of traps based on pheromones, which are chemicals that the same insects produce to communicate specifically with each other. These types of substances are used to entice adult individuals of the banana weevil into a trap and to reduce populations in the field through massive pheromone-mediated captures as a pest management practice. 15 traps were installed, which were distributed in the areas where there is banana cultivation, both on farmers' farms and in patios of the houses where the islanders live. Adults of the banana weevil are monitored on a weekly basis and the catch record is kept in each trap. The greatest problem that the Black Weevil generates is due to the direct damage that the larvae do when feeding on the corm, causing the destruction of the tissue. This brings with it rots and a weakening of the plant, which eventually dies without even producing fruit. Achievement 3 - Obtaining free sweet potato from Sweet potato weevil. When the project started, it was diagnosed that sweet potato farmers lost more than 50% of the fruits at the time of harvest, due to the presence of a pest belonging to the family Curculionidae Euscepes postfasciatus, an insect that develops its life cycle mainly. inside the plant (guides and tuberous roots), leading to death or deteriorating the quality of the sweet potatoes due to their presence inside them. Thanks to this management, farmers currently recognize the pest and have managed it with our instructions "they must start planting with apical guides, inspecting their tissue, preparing the soil beforehand, hilling the plants in order to protect the sweet potato and maintain frequent monitoring. ” Achievement 4 - Training plan and establishment of demonstration units: The technical teams of the Rapa Nui territory have been key partners in disseminating this knowledge with numerous technical activities, with more than 30 trained producers, who have attended workshops, talks, and technical visits. The Field Days have had an attendance that has exceeded 30 attendees in each activity, an important number for a small island. Natalia Olivares affirms, “our commitment as an INIA team is to promote and disseminate the research results obtained, through this Territorial Technology Transfer Program and achieve feedback with the observations and demands of the technical teams and leading producers, in a manner that to be able to adjust much better the pest control strategy and the learning processes of the producers since the reality of the island is very different from any other agro-ecological zone in the country. Therefore, it has also been learning for us to know their culture, their habits and their way of working the land. ”
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