Located on Campo de Herrera Cooperative lemon fields, this demonstration lot is a key part in project strategy implemented aimed to control HLB vector.
On Wednesday, February 2019, an Integrated Pest Management (IPM) demonstration lot was presented at Campo de Herrera Cooperative headquarters in Famaillá, Tucuman Province, Argentina. This is part of the FONTAGRO HLB Vector Control Project strategy in Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay and Bolivia. Members of the cooperative's board of directors, local growers, representatives of citrus companies in the province, SENASA, INTA and the Ministry of provincial productive development attended the event.
Mr. Alberto Luna, Cooperative s Chairman, offer a welcome speech to attendees and thanked INTA for continuing to support them. Next, Roberto Sopena, Director of INTA Famaillá, highlighted the importance of this project and the commitment of INTA and the cooperative to carry it out. He stressed that this is one of the only two demonstrative lots on lemon, since the rest of the lots participating in the project focus on sweet citrus (orange and tangerine). Finally, Beatriz Carrizo, local project leader at INTA Famaillá, presented the project along with the characteristics of the selected lot and the activities to be carried out. Subsequently, they visited the demonstration lot.
Project comprises a number of activities to be performed in the demonstration lot: training in Integrated Pest Management and monitoring of lemon pests, including D. citri, crop phenology and climate conditions. These parameters will allow determining the optimal moments for plant control. Monitoring protocols will be established, standardized and published.
It should be noted that, to date, the Province of Tucumán is free of vector insect and HLB disease. Therefore, to prevent the advance of Diaphorina citri, HLB vector in the region and implement monitoring as a fundamental tool for Integrated Pest Management (IPM) in citrus, main project goals are crucial.
INTA Famaillá technical team and cooperative associates (local growers) elaborated a 3 years agenda including theoretical training and monitoring practices in the cooperative's lemon fields.
At grower s request, additional training will be carried out regarding damages identification and monitoring of other citrus pests such as the bud mite, Australian red mealybug, orchid trips, citrus leaf miner and, of course Diaphorina citri.
