THE Department of Agriculture (DA) is seeking foreign expertise to end fruit fly infestation affecting the country’s local mango production and export.
Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu-Laurel said the DA has invited fruit fly experts from Florida-based Sun & Earth Microbiology LLC to help eliminate Cecid fly infestation
The DA is open to the idea of testing the products of Sun & Earth after the biotechnology company helped control fusarium wilt in bananas—a fungus that causes discoloration and wilting that eventually kills the plant.
The agency expressed interest to try products that will address fusarium wilt that affects banana, abaca and coconut trees—all major agricultural exports of the Philippines—as well as solutions to resolve rice bugs infestation.
Sun & Earth plans to use biological microbes that had been successfully tested against the insects in Venezuela, Columbia and Vietnam to address Cecid fly problem in Palawan.
The island has raised concerns over the pest after some 10,000 hectares of mango plantation was affected by the Cecid fly.
The US biotechnology company also uses biological control agents to paralyze Cecid flies.