The Mesopotamia region began the 2015 campaign with a successful monitoring and mitigation program of the fruit fly on blueberries, which is already throwing positive results.

An unusual growth of the fruit fly population in the Argentine Mesopotamia as a result of the captures recorded on citric fruits had caused alarm at the beginning of the 2015 harvest among blueberries producers in the region. Thanks to this warning and to the timely precautions, a population reduction of the insect has already been proven in the area, and the fruit harvest is progressing at good pace.

Among the preventive measures taken, the Association of Blueberries Producers of the Argentine Mesopotamia (APAMA) has begun a combat plan that includes various actions to control and monitor the plague. Among the actions developed, producers had representation at the Regional Commission of PROCEM NEA; a communication campaign was approached to create awareness of the insect; a monitoring network was installed in the different production areas of the Mesopotamia; and massive traps were incorporated to the production system as a control tactic.

This week a new action was started, which consisted of delivering to regional producers a product known as Spinosad, an insecticide that will reinforce the land control of the plague. SENASA was responsible for the delivery of the dose, and APAMA managed and coordinated it together with Elena Rosales, general director of Agriculture of the Ministry of Production of Entre Ríos.

The application of this product will help to control the insect in over five hundred hectares of the area, almost 50% of the planted surface in the Department of Concordia.

The delivery of the product took place this Monday in Chajarí, in the framework of the SENASA’s Fly Control and Eradication Program (PROCEM), with the presence of Engineer Carlos Morilla -of SENASA – and representatives of APAMA’s technical team, doctor Micaela Heredia and engineer Darío Azcárate, the latter also in representation of the company Blueberries, in whose facilities the products will be stored for their later distribution.

“From APAMA we are coordinating a monitoring and mitigation plan of the fruit fly for the blueberries crops in NEA, since chemical control alone is not a sustainable solution in the long term. There are restrictions and tolerance levels to the use of pesticides, which makes relevant the search for different tactics and alternative strategies that take into consideration the insect’s ecology, the environmental conditions and the demands of international markets”, explained Heredia, coordinator of this plan.

In order to manage and distribute the dose provided by SENASA, APAMA conducted a previous census. Producers already registered can pick up their dose at Blueberries facilities located at Ruta 14 km 245 de Colonia Ayuí – Dpto. Concordia, as of this Wednesday, prior coordination with Engineer Azcárate.