Small-scale coffee growers knowledge and activities related to control of the coffee berry borer in Chiapas, Mexico / Liliana Jiménez González

Tesis Maestría en Ciencias en Recursos Naturales y Desarrollo Rural El Colegio de la Frontera Sur 1999

Bibliografía: hojas 20-24

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A structured questionnaire was used to analyze the strategies for control of the coffee berry borer (CBB), Hypothenemus hampei, used by resource-poor coffee growers in co-operative land-share communities (ejidos) in the municipality of Tapachula, Chiapas, Mexico during 1998-1999. A total of 122 growers were interviewed (9.2% of the total). Growers cited the CBB and the coffee leaf rust (Hemileia vastatrix) as the most important phytosanitary problems in their crop. Of the 112 growers that reported the presence of CBB infestations. 83.9% claimed that it caused a loss in coffee yields. Overall, 39.3% of growers engaged in some form of CBB control activity although just 8.0% of growers carried out sampling to determine the levels of CBB attack in the field. The majority of growers did nothing to control this pest (60.7%), whereas 34.8% practised the most common control measure that involved collecting berries that remained following the harvest. The low degree of interest shown by these growers in controlling the CBB highlights the need to better understand the criteria by which such resource-poor growers make pest control decisions, and the need to clarify their perception of the pest which seems to differ substantially from the concepts used by entomologists. eng

Entomología Tropical