A natural repellent removed from the guava leaf may be the solution to control citrus greening, considered one of the worst diseases of citriculture in Brazil and in the world. The product is being developed in a partnership between the Federal University of São Carlos (UFSCar) and the Fund for Citrus Protection (Fundecitrus), and it should start to be tested in the groves soon.

The disease is caused by a bacterium that is transmitted by an insect vector, the psyllid. Because it is too small and difficult to identify, it easily enters the groves. If the plant is infected, it has to be eliminated. And because of that, the group of researchers began to investigate natural pesticides capable of repelling the psyllid and attract them to another area, without harming the environment and human health.

They discovered a molecule in the guava leaf that has this attribute. “Our research looked for natural volatile compounds, which are the odors. Our strategy is to use these compounds to repel the insect from the grove to another area, where we can apply pesticides in a more rational way, and also to avoid contaminating the environment,” explained Fundecitrus researcher Mr. Rodrigo Facchini Magnani.

The research in laboratory has already been completed. The next step includes studying the effectiveness of this repellent in the field. “To check if it really works as a repellent and then incorporate it into citrus greening management,” said Mr. Magnani.

The latest Fundecitrus data showed that 16.73% of the groves in the state of São Paulo were affected by the disease last year, with around 32 million infected trees.

The pathway to sustainable citrus growing goes through improvements in the tools to manage the orchard in order to maintain its health, in synch with new, latest innovation in production trends, with efficient use of natural resources and which are less impacting on the environment. Aware of such demand, Fundecitrus has looked in all its lines of research for new ways of helping citrus growers to maintain their orchards producing with cost efficiency and not adversely affecting the environment.

BIOLOGICAL CONTROL AND PHEROMONE

Fundecitrus approach concerning that strategy started in 1996, when a big surge of citrus fruit borer – a moth whose caterpillar penetrates the fruit and may cause significant crop losses – led the research to look for alternatives that could inhibit the advance of that pest. Researchers studied the insect’s habits, described its life cycle and were able to isolate its sex pheromone. The effort resulted in a trap, available to citrus growers since 2001, which is a low-cost, high-efficiency tool to monitor the fruit borer. A recent study by the “Luiz de Queiroz” Agricultural College (Esalq/USP) reported that the use of such trap prevented losses from US$132.7 million to 1.32 billion from November 2001 to 2013.

Also in 1996, another pest – the citrus leafminer – started causing serious problems to citrus growing due to its influence on the severity of citrus canker. Keeping up with its search for low-cost and low environmental impact tools, Fundecitrus oriented its efforts towards a fast and efficient solution. Studies were conducted regarding the feasibility of importing Ageniaspis citricola wasp, a leafminer parasitoid, from the US. By mid 1998 the first lot of this parasitoid, arrived in Brazil. After the quarantine procedure, the little wasps were reared in large scale and released in 200 orchards from 60 municipalities of Sao Paulo State. Tamarixia radiata, a natural enemy of the Asian citrus psyllid (Diaphorina citri), vector of the bacteria associated with HLB (huanglongbing/greening), is the newest sustainable tool used by Fundecitrus to fight against the world’s main citrus disease. The little wasp uses the psyllid nymphs to reproduce, by laying its eggs below them, so that later, it will become food to the larvae when they eventually hatch. In May 2015, Fundecitrus started its biofactory in Araraquara-SP. The T.radiata production of this lab is around 100.000 wasps per month, which are released at locations such as backyard or abandoned orchards, rural and urban areas. The goal is to reduce the psyllid population at their breeding grounds in a sustainable manner to avoid their migration to orange orchards.

A research developed by Professor Jose Postali Parra’s team, from Esalq/ USP, with Fundecitrus support, showed that in areas where Tamarixia radiata was released, there was an average reduction of 70% in the psyllid population, reaching peaks higher than 90%.

NATURAL INSECTICIDES

Insecticides with natural compounds are another sustainable-control alternative. In this respect, Fundecitrus is developing a bioinsecticide and a botanical insecticide to control the psyllid. The bioinsecticide is based on an entomopathogenic fungus (which causes disease to insects). After four years of research developed in partnership with Esalq/USP and Koppert, the product is being field tested, with initial results showing 80% efficiency in controlling the psyllid. The botanical insecticide, developed in association with Embrapa Acre, is an essential oil extracted from a plant known as spiked pepper. This plant produces a compound named dillapiol and has shown, in lab tests, to have good potential to control the psyllid.
With the arrival of HLB in Sao Paulo, in 2004, citrus growers saw their costs soar with sprayings. Also, at that time, Fundecitrus started its research on the technology application against the psyllid, aiming to reduce up to 70% of insecticide and water for this pest control. Additionally, the institution has maintained for several years a team dedicated to training growers and visit citrus farms to teach them how to correctly adjust spraying equipment to avoid waste.

SUSTAINABLE FUTURE

The trend is that the citrus industry will increasingly use technological innovations in the future, with focus on sustainability, and wiser, cheaper, and more natural strategies, such as pheromones, to help both: to monitor the insects and to attract and kill them. Another strategy is the study of repellence by odors or physical pest control. As a long-term strategy, researchers are also searching for plants – either citrus or other crops which may be inter-planted with orange trees – that are disease-resistant or pest-repellent.
“No matter the pathway to be taken, all Fundecitrus researches are earmarked for improving citrus growing with increasingly more natural and intelligent measures”, affirms the institution’s manager, Juliano Ayres.

Click here  to access the entire issue.

]]> http://sustainablejuice.com/2017/02/citrus-growing-in-times-of-sustainability/feed/ 0 http://sustainablejuice.com/2017/02/efficient-cost-effective-spraying/ http://sustainablejuice.com/2017/02/efficient-cost-effective-spraying/#comments Thu, 02 Feb 2017 17:54:17 +0000 http://sustainablejuice.com/?p=473 A research by Fundecitrus shows that it is possible to reduce the spray volume by 70%, and costs by up to 40% while maintaining quality of control deseases.

During the 2012-2013 and 2013- 2014 seasons, the researchers assessed several volumes of spray and copper rates to control citrus canker on trees of sweet orange “Valencia” planted in 2006, with an average canopy volume of 49 m³. Spray volumes were defined based on the tree canopy size, aiming to reduce waste of resources and production costs.

Volumes of 150, 100, 70, and 40 mL of spray mixture/m³ of canopy were tested during two seasons. The last two volumes were also assessed with adjustment of the copper rate. The study assessed the incidence of leaves and fruits with symptoms, premature fruit drop, yield, copper deposits on the leaves, spray coverage and the cost-benefit ratio.

In the first year, the copper-treated plants – regardless of the volume and copper adjustment – showed at the most 5% of occurrence of diseased leaves. Whereas non-sprayed trees showed a peak of 30% of leaves with citrus canker.

In the second year, results were similar to those in the first year, except for the 40 mL/m³ volume with no rate adjustment, which reached 10% of symptomatic leaves, between November and January, when tree flushing coincides with the occurrence of rains.

According to researchers, the lower protection of that treatment was caused by the reduction of product deposits on the tree. In this case, when the rate was adjusted, control was reestablished, showing that the 40 mL volume may be efficient, since the metallic copper rate is adjusted.

“The results show that spray volumes may be safely used by citrus growers. Lower spray volumes and copper rates may affect such control and are still being studied.”, affirms researcher Franklin Behlau.

With this method, citrus growers would save US$ 1.5 in one application, on a 100-hectare area, for example.

Equipment adjustments are required to use reduced volumes of spray, among which the use of spray nozzles that produce fine droplets (150 µm). The sprayer speed must not exceed 5.5 km/h, with a minimum coverage of 30% on the leaves inside the canopy.

According to Fundecitrus researcher Marcelo da Silva Scapin: “The adequacy of application volumes allows savings and reduction of the environmental impact, in addition to increasing the operating efficiency of the equipment”, he affirms.

As an example, if the reduction proposed by the research were applied to the Sao Paulo State citrus belt, which is currently estimated at 462 thousand hectares, if carrying out six applications per crop year, there would be savings of 6.2 billion liters of water, enough to supply the whole city of Sao Paulo for 5 days, or the equivalent to 56 million people for one day. The cost reduction for the whole citrus belt would reach US$ 40 million a year in expenses with equipment, product and labor.

To see the entire publication, please click here.

Planting more trees in the same land area. That is the simpler explanation of a planting technology which is being used in Brazilian groves and that can help increasing phytosanitary control and raising productivity with no need to increase the planted area. It’s called densification (high density groves), a planting model which consists in planting trees closer to each other. The system has been researched in the past 15 years by the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (Embrapa, in Portuguese), in partnership with Bebedouro’s Citriculture Experimental Station (EECB, in Portuguese) and the results of these studies show an increase in production in the first crops by 89% compared to the traditional spacing.

One of the older partners in developing these studies is the citrus grower, Mr. Henrique Fiorese, owner of properties in the towns of Olimpia and Colombia (state of São Paulo) that total 200 hectares of citrus groves. Around 20 years ago, he started to practice densification. Currently in his properties, the average occupation is 1 thousand trees per hectare, way above the average in the region, which is around 700 trees per hectare. With this system, the citrus grower was able to not only multiply his trees, but also raise his production more than double, going from around 700 boxes per hectare to 1.5 thousand boxes per hectare. “Nowadays it’s not economically feasible a citrus production made in traditional ways, plant densification is essential”, says Mr. Fiorese.

Embrapa researcher, Mr. Eduardo Girardi, one of the responsible for coordinating the studies, points out that besides the gain in productivity, one of the advantages in the model is optimizing the use of land. “In this system you are able to obtain the same production in a smaller area. This way, it’s possible to make room in the farm for crop diversification, renting or even clear space for an environmental reserve. That without doubt offers an interesting gain”, he highlights.

In the citrus park that ranges the State of São Paulo and the Citrus Belt, it’s possible to observe the growth of this planting model. The Orange Production Forecast (PES, in Portuguese), developed by Fundecitrus and that has just updated the citrus belt inventory of the State of São Paulo, shows that in 2015, the average densification was 448 trees per hectare in adult groves and 631 trees per hectare in growing groves. After a year, the 2016 forecast shows that the average densification went to 467 in adult groves and 654 in growing groves, an increase of 4.2% and 3.6%, respectively. “It is without doubt a planting model highly sustainable and effective”, says Mr. Girardi.

The disease Citrus Variegated Chlorosis (CVC), also known in Brazil as “amarelinho”, that was once considered the biggest threat of the citrus industry in the 1990’s, is practically extinct in most of the orange groves at the citrus park in Brazil, which encompasses 349 municipalities in São Paulo and Minas Gerais. According to Fundecitrus – The Brazilian Citriculture Defense Fund, research organization funded by a partnership between citrus growers and the industry, the disease affects only 3.02% of orange trees, the lowest rate since the survey started in 1996.

CVC was identified for the first time in the world at groves in São Paulo in 1987, and by 2004 it reached 43.8% of orange trees. The complete ignorance about the disease led to elimination of over 100 million orange trees since the first report and losses in production of more than 20% from 2000 to 2005, when CVC reached its peak, being responsible for more de R$ 1 bi in damages to the citrus chain.

Many citrus growers gave up on the activity and stopped planting fearing they’d beaten by the disease and many of them believed in the end of the Brazilian citrus industry’s competitiveness. However, a research network gathering national and foreign organization resulted in a jump in knowledge and improvement of CVC management, which is based in using healthy seedlings, controlling the leafhoppers spreading the disease and the removal of sick trees. The incorporation of this new model of control by the majority of citrus growers resulted in the intensity and importance of the disease dropping drastically in the last few years.

Proof of that is in the data regarding the occurrence of CVC in different age groups in the groves. In the last few years, the disease is decreasing in all ages of trees, becoming a secondary issue, but still a strong one in older groves, over 10 years old, remaining from when the disease first appeared. It was in this age group that they observed the largest drop in the rate of the disease, which impacted the general rate. The reason was the elimination of the older sick trees with low productivity and replacing them with healthy groves grown in a new technological model of prevention and management of the disease.

See the report, in Portuguese, at: http://www.fundecitrus.com.br/comunicacao/noticias/integra/cvc-atinge-apenas-3-da-citricultura/418

The Government of the State of São Paulo announced a new electronic system to monitor the sales of agrochemicals in its territory, a region where the Brazilian citrus production is concentrated. The goal of this monitoring, which will be carried out by the Agricultural Defense Coordination (CDA), agency under the Secretariat of Agriculture of the state of São Paulo, is to prevent the sale and use of illegal products that can cause damages to the environment and to those who applied them.

The forecast is that by the end of this year all data related to buying and selling agrochemicals are in the system, allowing CDA to control the flow of products in the state. These information must be provided by the manufacturer, distributors and farmers. “Every agrochemical entering the State of São Paulo to be sell through legal means will be registered and tracked”, says Mr. Rafael de Melo Pereira, director of the Center for Inspection of Inputs and Soil Conservation of the Agricultural Defense.

With this monitoring, the farmers must register the cultures they grow in their farms. The distributors must inform the amount and types of agrochemical purchased by their store. The non-compliance prevents the marketing of the product, in other words, those who don’t inform are unable to sell or buy.

The Secretariat is already inspecting stores and farms in order to identify the use of illegal products, that can be up to 60% cheaper. However, the economy is only financial since, because they are not approved by the Brazilian government, they don’t offer safety when applying – it can harm the environment as well as the grower who manipulates it.

The secretary of agriculture, Mr. Arnaldo Jardim, highlighted that inspection and control are essential to delimit the use of agrochemicals. “We can’t demonize science and waive agrochemicals, but we should use them in a disciplined manner, in the right amounts”, he said.

The illegal agrochemicals cause damage not only to the planet and human health but as well as to the financial health of those who use them – they can be arrested by the Federal Police for smuggling. The Defense technicians inspect farms and stores in order to identify these products. The farmer as well as the seller have to shown purchase invoices. At the farm, the agrochemical has to be the one specifically indicated to the culture grown in the areas and it has to be recommended by an agronomist through agronomic prescription.

Those who use illegal agrochemicals can be legally implicated in environmental crime, with sentences ranging from community service to prison. The Agricultural Defense fines the farmer, who has 15 days to explain, if they don’t, there’s an administrative penalty, like notice or fine, that ranges from 1 to 1000 MRV (highest reference value) – an amount that can double in case of recurrence. This money goes to the Fund of Agricultural Defense to continue its inspection activities.

After that, the administrative process is submitted to the Public Prosecutor’s Office. Even after the fine, the illegal product must be necessarily incinerated, with the collection at the property being paid by the offender themselves.

In 2015, the Defense carried out 454 inspections in farms, 911 in agrochemicals retailers, 105 spraying companies and 33 receiving stations or centers of empty containers. 150 notice of infraction were issued.

You can see the legislation, in Portuguese, on the use of agrochemical at http://www.defesa.agricultura.sp.gov.br/www/legislacoes/popup.php?acti%20target=

It appears timidly in the grove and, acting nonchalant, it leaves a trail of destruction in the orange blossom. In a second moment, it’s also the one that drops the fruits still growing, which can affect up to 95% of the grove’s productivity in some cases. We are talking about postbloom fruit drop (PFD), a disease known in Brazil as “estrelinha” (little star) and whose highest incidence occurs during the rainy season, like the atypical 2016’s fall and winter. With that in mind, Fundecitrus researchers created a free online system which monitors the risk of postbloom fruit drop in the groves and it works as a precise alert for the citrus grower. “One of the advantages of this system is that the citrus grower will know the right time to apply fungicide. This way, he manages to reduce the number of applications, depending on the situation, and to decrease the control costs up to 75%”, explains the researcher, Mr. Geraldo José da Silva Junior.

The program is very simple and monitors the weather conditions at the groves in real time, helping the grower to decide when it’s the best time to spray. The tool keeps a climate record and shows the percentage risk of the diseases happening or not. To use the system, the grower sets up a small weather monitoring station, which gathers the data and sends them to the Fundecitrus program by satellite. “We recommend to set up one station every 5k radius of grove”, explains Mr. Junior.

The growers registered in the program receive warnings by text messages or e-mail about the risk of incidence of the disease and the indication for spraying. “The postbloom fruit drop application must be done in a preventive way, before the rain starts, but if the plants get wet for over 48 consecutive hours, the system will indicate the need to respray the fungicide. This way, unnecessary spraying is avoided, making the control of the disease more sustainable, once it reduces the number of applications in dryer years and direct the spraying for critical moments in rainy years, decreasing the costs of production and keeping an efficient control of the disease”, explains Fundecitrus researcher, Mr. Geraldo José da Silva Junior.

When the online system receives the data, it processes information and verifies which areas there’s risk of the disease showing. These alerts are color-coordinated and it means no risk (green), moderate risk (yellow), high risk (red) and extreme risk (dark red). Whenever there’s risk, even if it’s minimum, the system sends an alert by e-mail or text message to the grower, warning them about the best date for spraying.

Fundecitrus also develops a series of training courses for growers on how to better control the disease.

The program is available in Portuguese, at http://pfc.ensoag.com. You can also access a tutorial in Portuguese which explains how the system works, at the Fundecitrus YouTube channel https://youtu.be/8Q5fBlf6Clo

As the saying goes “less is more” and it makes total sense when it comes to citrus spraying. It might seem strange, considering that few crops suffer as much with plagues and diseases as the citrus crop. Even so, a series of studies developed in partnership between the Agronomic Institute of Campinas (IAC), affiliated to the Secretary of Agriculture of the state of São Paulo, and Fundecitrus, a research organization funded by a partnership between citrus growers and the industry, showed that in the last 20 years, the volume of solution, which is the mix of agrochemicals and water, used in applications should be reduced from an average of eight to ten thousand liters per hectare to something around two to three thousand liters per hectare. This represents a 70% decrease in product volume applied in the fields. This is one of the main findings of a series of special features on spraying, published in the CitrusBR magazine. In the last two issues, the publication covered the latest in management and technologies used to make it easier to apply agrochemicals in a more effective way, in order to control plagues and disease, environmentally safer and more economic for the producer.

Even though the cost of this kind of operation fluctuate from one production model to another, it’s easy to see that this kind of change not only saves agrochemicals, but also saves spraying time, time/machine, fuel, water, among others. In other words, it’s possible to protect more spending less. “The big issue today is to adjust the volumes applied in the field so that the producer uses the exact dose of the product. No more, no less”, reveals the scientific researcher from the Center for Engineering and Automation at the Agronomic Institute (IAC), Mr. Hamilton Humberto Ramos.

One of the main experts in citrus spraying in Brazil, Mr. Ramos has dedicated 20 years of his work to research better ways to have an efficient phytosanitary control. He explains that in order to apply it in a environmental and economic correct way, it involves paying attention to the equipment, the speed of tractors, attention to the weather, among others. “Paying attention to these, we were able to significantly reduce the volume of products used in the field”, he says.

In the field

From research to groves, there are many cases of citrus growers who have adopted standards of excellence for sanitary control of their groves. One example is the farm Agro Terenas. With eight thousand hectares of groves, distributed in three farms in the countryside of São Paulo, the group invested R$500 thousand, or around US$160 thousand, in a software to map the whole property, so that the data collected by professionals looking at trees for plagues and diseases is updated in real time in the database. “We want to have an integrated database with precise information on occurrence of diseases and operational control over spraying”, explains the agribusiness director of the group, Mr. Adilson Penariol.

The system allows to map which areas inside the same section have more sick plants and need larger doses or spraying, which increases the efficiency of the application. “Besides, the system itself will manage the samples to be inspected, so we can have an even more precise average of each disease”, explains the director.

From there, the data regarding spraying, input consumption and the average speed of the machines will be crossed in order to guide the next steps. “We have already made many changes in the last few years and now, with the implementation of the system, we will reach a high precision at work”, explains Mr. Marcio Soares, R&D supervisor. The last stage, with no deadline to be implanted yet, will probably be to process all theses data and put them on the “smart sprayer”, which, through it sensors, will be able to adjust the application according to the data collected in the groves, guiding the exact speed and volume of solution for each part of the section. The idea is that the technology will also be able to identify with precision when and where the nozzle should be closed, like in places with difficult angles and no plants, for example. “This way we have more control of the diseases, saving product and no environmental risk”, says Mr. Penariol.