Integrated Pest Management of Horticultural Crops in Guyana

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Erfan Vafaie, an Extension Program Specialist in Integrated Pest Management with Texas A&M AgriLife Extension, completed a two-week volunteer assignment from June 16th – 30th 2019, in Guyana as a Farmer-to-Farmer (F2F) Volunteer with Partners of the Americas. He worked closely with staff from the National Agricultural Research & Extension Institute (NAREI) and with private producers from various regions.

The whole of his first week was spent visiting farmers. Over 20 farms were visited, and more than 70 people were formally trained. Specific details about those visits can be found on his blog here: Farmer-2-Farmer: Guyana 2019. Erfan identified some of the key crop challenges that local farmers were facing: 50% of the young coconut trees were lost to rhinoceros beetle, there was a 60% loss of watermelons to rind necrosis, and 100% of the guava fruit was lost to the guava fruit fly, to name a few. Erfan spent the better part of his first weekend in Guyana learning more about these particular pests, learning about locally available pesticides (and prices), and created some presentations on managing some of the identified challenges.


During the second week, Erfan conducted a series of workshops/training to help identify some of the key pests the farmers were facing and how to manage them, whether preventatively, physically, or even with the responsible use of pesticides. He made recommendations related to soursop seed borer, guava fruit fly, rhinoceros beetle and rind necrosis on melons. For example, reducing the use of broad-spectrum pesticides, rotating insecticide and chemicals, solarizing beds, and monitoring insect pests. Erfan made the PDFs of those training materials available online, they can be found on his website at: https://sixleggedaggie.com/farmer-2-farmer-guyana-2019/farmer-2-farmer-guyana-2019-resources/. 

Erfan describes his two weeks in Guyana as both a great personal experience and a great opportunity professionally. He met many kind, generous, and hardworking souls, but also learned about some pests and diseases that are not yet present in Texas - so being able to learn about them in Guyana will help any future research/work needed in case they ever land in Erfan’s native region.

 


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