Eleven fruit-producing districts in Colombia will participate in a fruit fly control program aimed at improving productivity and phytosanitary standards.

As part of the National Fruit Fly Plan, the program seeks to go beyond field-by-field control by installing 2,300 detection traps for Ceratitis capitata and other exotic flies.

The integrated management plan is being administered through the Colombian Agriculture Institute (ICA) and the Colombian Horticulture Association (Asohofrucol).

A variety of fruit crops are covered by the program including mangoes, blackberries and guava.

"The clusters are zones with concentrated production of a specific products, a reason that the Fly Plan aims to prevent and control this insect plague to improve fruit health, phytosanitary condition of the region and improve production capacity for specialized markets," said ICA technical director Emilio Arévalo Peñaranda.

Goals of the program are to establish fruit fly-free zones and to diminish cases in at-risk zones.

The eleven regions selected focus on the following fruits: oranges and blackberries (Antioquia); guavas, passion fruit and dragonfruit (Valle); mangoes (Atlántico, Tolima and Magdalena), guavas and dragonfruit (Boyacá); guavas and blackberries (Santander); blackberries, gulupa (Passiflora pinnatistipula) and mangoes (Cundinamarca); peaches (Norte de Santander); granadilla, passion fruit and dragonfruit (Huila); and guavas (Meta).

Photo: ICA

www.freshfruitportal.com