hollywoodtone.blogspot.com Coffee rust disease continues to spread
hollywoodtone.blogspot.com Coffee rust disease continues to spread
Detroit - Coffee rust disease has ravaged Latin American plantations since late 2012 and there is no immediate cure or treatment on the horizon. An ecologist recommends dropping nasty chemicals and going back to ‘old ways’.
A recent coffee rust epidemic damaged plantations from Mexico to Peru. Coffee rust is caused by a fungus called Hemileia vastatrix. The fungus grows on the coffee plant, eventually killing it. Coffee Rust’s first recorded epidemic was in 1830, when it completely destroyed the coffee industry in Ceylon. Since then it has appeared at different times with different effects; this latest outbreak has proved to be very damaging. For example, coffee rust meant that [url=http://less http://ift.tt/1i2j2gS t=_blank]Guatemala had 40% less coffee to sell during 2013. There are other economic implication, for instance, the price of older non-resistant coffee seeds is $0.25/seed, whereas new rust resistant hybrids cost $1.00. The main focus on tackling the disease has been by spraying fungicides (powerful, toxic chemicals designed to eliminate the fungus). To one ecologist, this is the wrong approach and will only do more harm than good. Instead of using chemicals, John Vandermeer recommends management practices focused on maintaining the complex web of ecological interactions among coffee plantation organisms will be more effective. This includes promoting a natural ecosystem of insects, fungi, plants, birds and bats. John Vandermeer is a professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and at the School of Natural Resources and Environment, University of Michigan. To explain his ideas, he writes in a statement: “The techniques of so-called modernization (e.g., cutting shade, applying fungicides) may gradually eliminate what has been effectively autonomous biological control.”
hollywoodtone.blogspot.com Coffee rust disease continues to spread