Negros Occidental steps up fight vs sugarcane pest
BACOLOD CITY, NEGROS OCCIDENTAL, Philippines — The Negros Occidental provincial government has hired six more biologists to hasten the production of biological control agents for the fight against red-stripe soft scale insects (RSSI) that have been devastating sugarcane fields.
Three of the biologists will be assigned to an insectary to produce beneficial bugs used against RSSI, while the other three will work in a laboratory producing metarhizium—an entomopathogenic fungus (capable of causing disease or death in insects) sprayed on pest-infested areas, provincial administrator Rayfrando Diaz said.
The road-spraying strategy focuses on applying the fungus along field perimeters to establish protective treatment zones, Diaz said, adding that farmers are already reporting positive effects following initial applications.
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The Provincial Biosecurity Task Force for Agriculture conducted spraying operations in Moises Padilla and La Castellana on Thursday, and then to Pontevedra on Friday.
READ: Sugarcane pest spreads to 23 towns in Iloilo
The provincial government is producing the bio-control agents in its own laboratories and will partner with the Philippine Sugar Research Institute Foundation Inc. to establish laboratories in containerized vans, Diaz said.
Diaz said the production and spraying of biological control agents are viewed as a long-term, sustainable solution to the RSSI infestation. /cb
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