The head of the Secretariat for Agricultural and Food Promotion and Rural Development of the State of Oaxaca (Sefader), Victor Lopez Leyva confirmed to EL UNIVERSAL, the damage to 500 hectares of coffee crops in Oaxaca. “Producers affected by this pest of the coffee borer are already being treated,” he said in an interview.
The care is coordinated by the federal government together with the government of Oaxaca, through the National Service of Health, Safety and Agro-Food Quality (Senasica). “In Santa Maria Yucuhiti we had the report of the coffee borer through the State Committee of Plant Health of Oaxaca,” said Victor Lopez Leyva.
The producers affected so far are from the municipalities of Santa María Yucuhiti and some from Santiago Nuyoó in the Mixteca region of Oaxaca, where at least 593 producers have been counted, nearly 500 hectares affected; these communities compete to present the best specialty coffees in the state. In the last three years, thanks to the efforts of the families, the beans have obtained above 85 points.
The borer is a pest that destroys the internal tissues of the branches, twigs and shoots of the plant, “it creates something called necrosis, this prevents the sap from circulating, which allows photosynthesis. In addition to water, and as a consequence of not having water and not having nutrients such as sap, the plants die. And where they do not die, it affects the yield, because all the water no longer circulates through the internal tissues of the plants.”
The borer or drill pest does not distinguish the variety of coffee plants. “We do not have varieties resistant or tolerant to the borer pest, what we have in Oaxaca are mostly shaded varieties, because it is what cohabits with our jungles and forests.”
After the report, the head explained that sampling was carried out in the affected areas, in addition to the mopping, a chemical and cultural control is carried out with an investment of a little more than 482 thousand pesos, “for the control and eradication of this borer or coffee branch borer, this is the report that we have to date. Throughout the state we have reports of the coffee borer and the coffee rust, but the borer is the first report we receive,” said the head of Sefader.
Unlike the pests: rust and the coffee borer, they are treated year after year to control them, where the most efficient control is the renewal of the plants with more resistant ones. “There are varieties resistant to coffee berry borer and rust, which are the most common pests that have been around for many years, but they have to be dealt with. In addition, coffee growers must be trained to use better practices.”
According to the first half-yearly report of the coffee pest campaign 2024, the black coffee branch borer (Xylosandrus compactus) is a pest that has increased worldwide in recent decades. For example, in Mexico there were two reports in the state of Guerrero in 2017 and 2018. During 2022, the presence of the pest was detected on the borders of Oaxaca, Puebla and Veracruz. By the end of 2023, the presence of the pest was confirmed in the municipalities of Cacahoatán and Unión Juárez, Chiapas, and new foci of infestation were detected in the municipalities located on the borders of the state of Guerrero with Oaxaca.
Víctor López Leyva said that while the pest is being contained, the losses it could cause are unknown because producers are in the middle of harvesting coffee beans. He said that the State Convention of Oaxacan Specialty Coffee will be held in May.
According to data from the Agri-Food and Fisheries Information Service (SIAP), in its first half-yearly report in 2024, 699,506 hectares of coffee were reported nationwide, distributed in 14 Federative Entities of the country, the main ones being Chiapas, Veracruz and Oaxaca, which together account for approximately 74% of the established surface area in Mexico, with a production of 1,058,862 tons of cherry coffee, whose value is estimated at 7,122 million pesos.
Source: oaxaca.eluniversal
