Crops are under threat of being reduced and destabilized by not only a newly detected pest, but also another that continues to spread in every corner of the country.
On Monday, Agricultural Entomologist, at the Ministry of Agriculture, Rishi Mohansingh warned farmers to beware of the dangerous leaf-mining moth called Tuta Absoluta capable of crippling crops such as tomatoes, melongene and peppers.
Mohansingh alerted farmers as to what they need to be on the lookout for.
“It affects the leaves, the stems of the plant but most importantly, it affects the fruits of the plant and we know the fruit is the most marketable of your plant, so when we say it affects the fruit of the plant it actually makes holes in the fruits of the plant just under the sepal area and once you have holes there, you will get secondary infection and then rot. You will also get larvae or worms as they are commonly called in the fruit.”
Over the years, the pest wreaked havoc on the African continent, with losses estimated to tens of millions of US dollars.
According to Mohansingh, the pest was detected earlier this year, however, it has not yet expanded its geographic range.
“It is on the east-west corridor basically, St George East and St George West and we now notice it is going into the Caroni area.”
Mohansingh advised farmers to keep their eyes peeled for signs of the moth-like pest.
“This pest is very small, like the size of a mosquito, we are not asking people to go and look for this pest...What you will see if leaf symptoms on your plant, what you get is a blotch on the leaf, now a leaf is green, but you get a transparent, irregular spot on your leaf and over time, this sport turns brown.”
He also explained that apart from field officers being given special training to tackle the threats, other steps can be taken to peg back the pest.
“We in the process of networking to bring in some materials. This is what the trap is, it is a cardboard, coated with plastic so it can take the weather conditions, these traps you place it out in the field and on the trap you have with is called a pheromone, that little pink material and it has the female pheromone in it and it is placed in the trap and in the field. It has to be hung on the plant two feet above ground, and you have a sticky pad like a fly trap that comes out, so what happens is the pheromone will attract the male adults to this trap, they will come here, stick and die.”
Meanwhile, Roshni Sita Ramsingh, Agricultural Entomologist also at the Ministry of Agriculture lamented the dangers that Giant African Snails continue to pose nearly 15 years after being detected in the country.
“The fertility of the pest is a major challenge. I cannot fathom what the risk will be because if we continue along this way our farmers will have to end up using quite a lot more bait to get their crops growing and that will send up the cost of production, it will send up the cost of food and then you do have to be aware of the risks of pesticides.”
Ramsingh said what makes the GAS a major cause for concern is its appetite for almost any crop.
“So far it is eating everything except bamboo grass, it feeds on nearly all crops and it is very difficult for farmers.”
She added the inability to go to the places where the GAS is has impeded eradication.
“One of the major challenges with the Giant African snail is that if it comes on your property, you will manage it, but there are so many abandoned properties that the snail is just sitting there breeding and spreading out.”
Ramsingh said every citizen must now play an active role in eradicating the infestation as she warned if the population is allowed to become overwhelming the impacts can be severe to the farming community and the economy by extension.
