Govt move vs coco pest 5 years delayed

FORMER Sen. and now Presidential Adviser on Food Security and Agricultural Modernization Francis Pangilinan during his first press briefing as a member of the Cabinet. GRIG C. MONTEGRANDE

LUCENA CITYAn official of the scientists group Advocates of Science and Technology for the People (Agham) on Friday blamed the government for its failure to prevent the outbreak of coconut scale infestation (CSI), or cocolisap, that could have been foiled five years ago.

Finesa Cosico, Agham secretary general, said the pest was first detected by the Regional Crop Protection Center of the Department of Agriculture in Barangay Ulango in Tanauan City, Batangas province, in 2009.

If only the government, led by the PCA (Philippine Coconut Authority), paid serious attention to reports of the initial infestation, we would not be dealing with CSI on such a massive scale right now, Cosico, an agriculturist and entomologist, said in a statement sent to the Inquirer.

At this point, Cosico said the government should adopt an integrated pest management in its war on the pest.

This, she said, includes all pest control measures, such as the introduction of natural enemies and the application of organic pesticides to ensure effectivity of pest control strategies.

Coconut farmers stand to lose more if the government continued to offer paltry solutions, according to Cosico, who worked with the National Food Authority from 1999 to 2009 before she joined Agham full time.

Cosico said there were colonies of cocolisap in each infected coconut tree, which should be matched with a swarm of predators, or biological control agents, like the coccinellid Cryptognatha nodiceps, or friendly beetle.

She said the PCA released 24,000 coccinellid beetles in 2013 but these were insufficient, as pests started to destroy nearly 500,000 coconut trees in Quezon province alone.

The PCA does not even have a beetle for every infected coconut tree in Quezon, Cosico said.

Continue reading here:
Govt move vs coco pest 5 years delayed