Project leaders and Senior Researchers Silvana Giancola and Alcides Aguirre upresented the advances of the Fontagro Project “Sustainable control of the HLB vector in family agriculture in Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay and Bolivia”
Organized by INTA Concordia, 40th National Citrus Workshop was held on August 4 - 6, 2021. It aimed to generate, disseminate and exchange information and technologies among key actors in citrus sector. This year marked 40 years of experience carrying out these traditional Workshops. Due to pandemics the evento went virtual free access through the INTA Concordia You Tube channel.
On Friday, August 6, Module 3 was developed. Current situation of HLB and advances in research, in which the Ings. Agrs. Alcides Aguirre from INTA Concordia and Silvana Giancola from the Center for Research in Economics and Foresight studies CIEP - INTA and Project Leader acted as Keynote speakers regarding: Advances of the Fontagro Project “Sustainable control of the HLB vector in Family Farming in Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay and Bolivia”.
Huanglongbing (HLB) is the most important disease in the world citrus industry. So far there it has no cure. Prevention is based on the use of healthy material, crop and vector insect, Diaphorina citri (DC) monitoring, and the elimination of infected plants. HLB has been registered in Argentina since 2012 and in Paraguay since 2013. In Bolivia and Uruguay, no cases of HLB have been detected so far, but the presence of its vector has been detected.
Fontagro- INTA s project aims to adapt and disseminate integrated pest management (IPM) technology, with a focus on HLB vector control in family farming (FA) in Argentina, Bolivia, Paraguay and Uruguay. It is co-financed by Fontagro, a financing mechanism for the development of agricultural technologies and innovations in Latin America, the Caribbean and Spain, which promotes public-private platforms.
The intervention strategy proposed for the scaling up IPM technology includes setting demonstration lots (LD) located in family citrus establishments, as a territorial focal point. Project is organized in four components 1) IPM activities,2) training, communication and rising social awareness, 3) monitoring of sustainability and quality monitoring aswell as economic analysis and 4) implementation of scaling devices in FA with an innovation collective management approach
Implementation began in September 2019 and runs until March 2024. 110 researchers and extension workers from the four countries take active part in the project. Several institutions act as Project consortium: INTA / Fundación ArgenINTA (Argentina), INIA (Uruguay), UNI / FundUNI (Paraguay), Autonomous Municipal Government of Bermejo (Bolivia) and, as partners: SENASA and FEDERCITRUS of Argentina and UPEFRUY of Uruguay. 26 local institutions support the iniciative at territorial level.
Summary: https://www.fontagro.org/new/uploads/adjuntos/SíntesisAvancesProyectoFontagroVectorHLBenAF.pdf
Presentation: https://www.fontagro.org/new/uploads/adjuntos/FONTAGROHLB-Jornadas-Citricolas2021.pdf
