The use of a biological solution in agriculture to confuse the dangerous corn pest, the fall armyworm, and prevent its reproduction began to be promoted by the Mexican government on December 28, according to the online platform AgroPages.
Of the 60 insects that damage corn crops in Mexico, the armyworm is the most problematic. The larvae of this small moth can cause significant yield losses, up to 100%.
The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development announced that this biotechnological method is currently being applied to 24,000 hectares of maize crops. This is still a small fraction of the country’s nearly 8 million hectares of white and yellow maize, but the Ministry of Agriculture says there is potential for rapid expansion.
The Mexican Minister of Agriculture, Víctor Villalobos, affirmed that the economic and environmental costs of this method are low. “because it consists of placing bait dispensers with pheromones in the plots at the time of landing”. When released, the chemical prevents male butterflies from finding females.
To promote this method, the Mexican government enlisted the services of the American scientist Frances Arnold, who received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2018. The scientist pointed out that after ten years of research, the method has been improved to “create mating confusion in an insect”.
The Mexican researchers said the benefit of pheromones is that they reduce the use of chemical insecticides and also help reduce costs for growers. The study showed that pheromones can save 30-40% of the purchase cost of insecticides. Thus, significant economic savings are obtained, experts say.
Source: Rossa Primavera
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