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Interview: Argentine expert says biological control solution to agricultural pests

Xinhua, May 9, 2015 Adjust font size:

Biological control is a natural solution against agricultural pests and produces only limited impact on the environment, biologist Eduardo Botto said Friday in an interview with Xinhua.

Biological control is a method of controlling pests using other living organisms. These pests damage or reduce the amount and quality of a crop.

Botto, assistant director of Argentina's Institute for Agricultural Microbiology and Zoology of the National Agricultural Technology Institute (INTA), said that using biological agents as a method of pest control on both a micro and macro scale is a recent method in Argentina.

These techniques have been developed further in other Latin American countries than in Argentina, Botto said, adding that there are companies dedicated to producing and selling such products in Brazil, Chile, Colombia and Mexico.

During a guided tour of the lab in the INTA, an institute located some 30 km to the west of the capital city of Buenos Aires, Botto said the lab conducts research on control agents that could be used to combat pests from farmland, forest areas and in fruits.

The biologist said that they are looking into a better solution than the conventional pest control methods. The biologists are especially interested in the effect of genetically-modified agents.

"In nature, biological diversity is so vast that we only know about a very small percentage. For that reason, we should make an effort to try to use this biological diversity as a control," said Botto.

He showed Xinhua some micro-wasps which are one millimeter in size. They have been genetically modified and act as a means of biological control. "By attaching themselves to the pest, they destroy the eggs," added the biologist.

These insects were introduced to Argentina a year ago from Uruguay but they are originally from Australia.

"They can be reproduced in a laboratory in a cold environment and then they are let loose in the countryside. We keep them in test tubes" explained Botto.

It is a sort of a "handicraft work" to take the wasps to the place where they are to be freed: tying the test tubes to branches and removing the tubes' lid requires a stable and delicate hand, Botto said.

Further development into the field of biological control is very important for Argentina as it is one of the world's largest producers of soya beans. Endi