Mango growers helpless vs. cecid fly
MANGO growers in Pangasinan will continue to fend for themselves against the yearly onslaught of the cecid fly as no effective control measure has been yet discovered.
Provincial Agriculturist Dalisay Moya said mango growers are left with no other alternative but to resort to fruit bagging in order to save the fruits of their trees.
Moya told the Talakayan sa Kapitolyo that fruit bagging is costly at P20 per bag per fruit (inclusive of the labor cost), causing a big drain in the finances of the mango growers.
The mango fruits are wrapped in paper bags for 40 days until these are ready for harvest. The cecid fly, she said, is as tiny as a ball pen point and could not easily be seen by the naked eye.
The tiny pest causes black marks or stains in the skin of the fruit known as “kurikong’ in Pangasinan.
For decades, cecid fly has been a bane to mango production with no solution in sight from the Department of Agriculture.
Moya can only advise mango growers to strive to undertake good agricultural practices or go back to the basic to preserve their mango production and quality.
According to Moya, good agricultural practices means keeping area surrounding their mango farms clean and opt not to use chemical-based fertilizers and pesticides.
Fruit bagging, Moya said, is a proven cultural management practice.
Cecid fly, according to Moya, is not endemic in the province and may have come from other places transferred through their vectors that are flown by the winds. (Leonardo Micua)
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