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REGION''S COFFEE THREATENED BY BERRY BORER.

Article Excerpt
A parasite in Central America is threatening to make a bad situation intolerable for the region. Coffee producers were first hit by record-low prices (see NotiCen, 2002-08-01). Then there was a sharp decline in production accompanied by abandonment of farms and coffee plantations. Now the borer has come. In El Salvador the pest has been identified in 16 municipios and 27 coffee-producing cantons.

The Fundacion Salvadorena para Investigaciones de Cafe (Procafe) has announced that about 11,900 hectares are infested. Because of the abandonment of so many properties, Procafe estimates that 52,410 ha could fall to the plague. The spread will be facilitated by the abandoned trees because they still have beans on the branches left from last year's harvest. It is in these beans that the insect remains, ready to attack new fruits.

Broca, as the insect is called in Central America, came originally from Africa. Also known as the coffee-berry borer, or hypothenemus hempei, it is about 1.25 mm in length and feeds exclusively on the coffee bean. It penetrates the bean, where the male fertilizes the female. As is so often the case in these matters, the male then dies within the bean and the female leaves after depositing her eggs in the bean, seeking other fruits to continue the cycle. She deposits two or three eggs in each borehole, and can leave as many as 30 in a single bean,...

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