Taskforce Formed to Manage Asian Bean Thrip

Francisco Gutierrez

The concern for the future planting of the bean crop is real because the pest cannot be eradicated so a taskforce has been formed to devise a plan to manage the Asian bean thrip.

Francisco Gutierrez, Acting Managing Director, BAHA

“We are concerned and all measures and strategies have to be developed because the upcoming major bean crop at the end of the year and the beginning of the following year is very likely going to be affected. The pest is now fully established and it’s going to rear up again when that cycle starts up. So yes, we have to have sound strategies by then to be able to fight this pest. Mainly a very strict monitoring programme so that as soon as it is detected then actions can be taken so that it doesn’t blow out of proportions into massive populations. So we do believe that even by then, natural controls in the environment are going to kick in and also help in suppression the very high populations of this pest.”

The taskforce includes representatives from the ministry, the Belize Agricultural Health Authority (BAHA), the Regional Organization for Agricultural Health for Central America (OIRSA), the Caribbean Agricultural Research and Development Institute (CARDI), the Pest Control Board and grain producers.