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Citrus greening monitoring system beats record of participation of citrus growers
Considered one of the basis for citrus greening regional management, the online monitoring system called Phytosanitary Alert beat record of participation of citrus growers in the first half of July. From a total of 25.7 thousand traps registered in the system, they have monitored and sent information of 23 thousand. An 89.5% inclusion, the highest rate since the program was launched in September 2013.
The Phytosanitary Alert is a voluntary system, developed by Fundecitrus, a Brazilian research organization funded by citrus growers and the industry, to help citrus growers with citrus greening (HLB) regional management. The online system works through data collection from yellow adhesive georeferenced traps spread around most of the citrus municipalities. It is supplied every two weeks with information sent voluntarily by citrus growers regarding the psyllid’s population found in the traps in their farms and data from Fundecitrus’ own traps. Reports which show the situation in each region are generated and pointed out the critical locations of occurrence of the bug and where it’s necessary to control them.
According to Fundecitrus’ agronomist, Mr. Ivaldo Sala, the perception of the benefits of the Phytosanitary Alert to control psyllids and HLB is one of the main reasons for the growth of growers using the system. “The citrus growers are seeing the effects of regional management to control HLB inside and out of their farms, and the result of this is a larger participation in the system”, he says.
The Phytosanitary Alert monitors 232 thousand hectares of citrus groves, which corresponds to 48% of the citrus park of São Paulo and Minas Gerais. This year alone, the system’s covering area increased in 5 thousand hectares in the seven participating regionals: Araraquara, Avaré, Bebedouro, Casa Branca, Frutal, Lins and Santa Cruz do Rio Pardo.
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