Tecia Solanivora patata empanada

2002/07/01 Elhuyar Zientzia Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria

• Nekazaritza

The potato seed nightmare has its own name: Tecia solanivora sitsa. Originally from Guatemala, but thanks to the potato trade has spread over the last decade to most countries in South America and the Canary Islands.

In many South American countries potato is a staple food, so its damage is not banal. In 2001, the Ecuadorian paste destroyed 500,000 sacks of potato and thousands of hectares of planted harvest. And the crisis is not over. The losses foreseen for this year are higher than last year.

To address this problem there are two solutions: the use of pesticides and insecticides and the ‘biological fight’.

The first is too expensive and harmful and, in addition, most farmers do not have technology or materials for the proper spread of insecticides.

In this situation, the problem remains in the hands of virologists and entomologists. In 1999, researchers from the University of Quito developed the map of the deployment, learned about biology and launched a program to understand the invasion. The ultimate goal is to find a system that stops the spread of the glue.