UPL gathers experts to discuss management of new plagues of cotton in Brazil‏

UPL Brazil has gathered this month a council with eight experts to discuss the technical challenges of cotton in Brazil. Among them, agronomists and consultants from producing regions of Sao Paulo, Bahia, Goias, Mato Grosso and Minas Gerais are highlighted.

"An imminent change in the cotton market is noted and UPL is adjusting a stronger portfolio to enter into the market of this crop,” informed the marketing manager of UPL, Gilson Oliveira. During the event, experts were able to know how the product development and technical market development work within the Indian multinational.

At the meetings, the consultants presented result tests done with solutions for this type of crop. The challenges are big, because for each hectare, there are nearly four million floral structures between 35 and 120 days at the cotton cycle – that is, a propitious garden for plague attacks.

The disease of this sort of plague can generate losses of up to 50% on production and the reduction on the quality of the fiber. “Our goal is to identify molecules and solutions with wide spectrum of control and low impact to the natural enemies of the plagues,” informed the agronomist of Guerra consultancy, Jonas Guerra.

Among the major conclusions, it was possible to notice that, with the resistance management, it is not possible to do eight or nine applications with only product. “The UPL products tested by Ceres present performances capable of being included in a cotton phytosanitary program,” affirmed the agronomist of Ceres consultancy, Evaldo Takizawa.

Among the tested products, there was the Perito insecticide, launched recently by UPL Brazil. “The product has experienced combat several plagues in the crop, such as the whitefly and the boll weevil. Our goal, in the next tests, will reconsider the dose and will prove the efficiency, seeking to identify where it is more effective,” commented the agronomist of Ide consultancy, Milton Ide.

As next steps, the group of consultants plan to identify the main challenges in the plague combats for the next two years at the cotton crops. Regarding herbicides, the major weeds are Amaranthus palmer, Digitaria insulares, Eleusine indica (wiregrass) and Conyza Bonaerensis (fleabane).

The management solutions for herbicides include technology of dicamba, crop rotations in different periods and after harvest desiccation. When combating insects, the whitefly, the boll weevil, mites and the blight remain as the main targets. In order to do that, it is proposed destruction of the crop residues and the voluntary plants, monitoring, innovation techniques on application, besides new products and use of GMO.

For fungicides, the lack of monitoring, the loss of effectiveness of the products available in the market and the excessive use of one unique mode to control are the main risks. As a possible solution, researches have been conducting to develop new products and new varieties of the plant with greater resistance to diseases. The next meeting of the research team of UPL is forecast to occur in Campinas, Sao Paulo, in January of 2016.