Articles
RESEARCH PERSPECTIVES ON MAIN DISEASE AND PEST IN LATIN AMERICA
The importance of those pathogens depends on the region and on the management of the crop.
The potato crop in Latin America has increased in area and in yield per hectare.
The use of pesticides has also increased in order to maintain or increase the yields per hectare.
Table 1 shows a sample of the use of pesticides in two Latin American countries.
The observed increase in pesticides use is not only due to the increase of the area but also to the increase of the use of pesticides per hectare.
Actually, we can say that from the cost of production per hectare, 10 to 15% is spent in the control of pests.
As an example, in Colombia in the control of insects, we spend about 33 million dollars per year.
As it mainly concerns small farmers’ crops, it means that they are spending a high percentage of the cost of production on the control of insects.
This amount of money is affecting also the economy of the countries because almost all the insecticides are imported.
The objective of this presentation is to give an idea of the main diseases that are affecting the potato crop in Latin America and how different organizations and National Programs are working trying to solve these problems.
At the end of this presentation I am going to give my point of view of how we must continue to orientate the research in these aspects.