Brazil identifies three new plagues on soybeans, corn and cotton‏

In the last months, three new plagues were identified on Brazil cultivars of soybeans, corn, and cotton. The biggest loss potential is on corn crops in Mato Grosos, which can get to 90% of the planted area. However, the bureaucracy continues to be the big obstacle in the procedures of control and prevention. 

 

In an event held last Wednesday (Sep. 10) by the National Association of Plant Protection (Andef), researchers of the sector released results obtained in the most recent surveys. 

 

Among the states of Rio Grande do Sul and Santa Catarina, the coordinator pests at the University of Santa Maria, Jerson Carús Guedes, detected the presence of Melanagromyza sp., also known as leaf miner fly. It is an important pest in Australia, which is already disseminated in Asia and generates losses of up to 30% of grain production.

 

"Perhaps it is already present in Paraguay and Argentina," affirms the expert on the possible entrance doors of the problem. According to him, the pest has a narrow relation with the planting of the second soybean crop, during autumn. An immediate alternative to contain it is seed treatment.

 

At the surrounding areas of western Bahia - an area belonging to the agricultural frontier called Matopiba - there is a suspicion that this is a new variety of Helicoverpa caterpillar. Identified in the state of Ceará, Helicoverpa punctigera (native budworm) is considered as aggressive as armigera.

 

Estimates from a representative of the Agency of Crop Protection of Bahia, Suely, Xavier de Brito Silva, and points out that the potential loss is up to 16 bags per hectare on soybeans, 54 bags on corn and 76 bags on cotton. The new caterpillar may disseminate on family farms and fruit crops.

 

The third presented specie, very recognized by cotton growers, is Palmer's amaranth (Amaranthus palmeri), a top weed in the United States, was identified for the first time in Brazil in the state of Mato Grosso. The lack of control can cause losses up to 91% of the corn crops, 79% on soybeans and 77% on cotton, according to American bibliography.

 

"The weed is easily developing in regions of high temperatures and shallower crops - like agricultural commodities. All of these conditions are found in Mato Grosso, which enables the weeds to stay the whole year," explains agronomist Edson Araújo from the Mato Grosso Institute of Cotton. 

 

The president of Andef, Eduardo Daher, highlights that the procedures of regulation of new molecules does not take less than seven year to take place. "The bureaucracy is more perverse than the plague," emphasizes Eduardo. Now the recommendation given to the sector is that take the basic preventive measures such as crop rotation and find the best form of control along with experts.