The Italian medium He has activated the alarms because it occurs in southern Spain, in the provinces of Malaga and Granada.
The serious drought has caused avocado producers to have been affected by the lack of rainfall already That must be added a small beetle that is difficult to perceive.
This insect is the euwallacea fornicatus or beetle of ambrosia. It was discovered in 2023 in three farms in Motril and It has become an important concern for farmers.
Evolution of the plague
Despite having traps since the end of 2023, the first beetle captures of the ambrosia in Andalusia do not occur until summer of 2024. Give Procedure and notification of the plague, and organized with the City of Motril a technical days to inform the agricultural sector about the measures it should adopt.
In October 2024, the Andalusian Government confirms the presence of the insect for the first time in an Andalusian avocado plantation. From this moment, the Territorial Delegation of Granada has been issuing individualized resolutions with phytosanitary measures to be executed in the four agricultural farms of the Motril municipality where its presence has been detected.
Given this situation, in December of last year the existence of the plague, the affected areas and the measures to be applied is officially declared. For the establishment of these control actions, LA council has opted to seek consensus with the affected.
This response from the Andalusian government has been based, as highlighted by the counselor, on “the constant communication and coordination with the Ministry of Agriculture, fundamental given their powers and the established legal framework“. As a result of this collaboration between administrations and in response to the request of the Board, the central executive authorized the exceptional use of an active substance (Lambda Cihalotrín) for the eradication of this plague.
Currently, the technicians of the Ministry of Agriculture continue with the monitoring of the territory through new traps installed in December and January in the province of Granada and in municipalities of Malaga and Huelva.
The Board will compensate the destruction of crops
The Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development, Ramón Fernández-Pacheco, has announced that the Andalusian government is ending the procedures prior to the publication of the order that will regulate the compensation for destruction of avocado crops affected by the beetle of the ragweed.
Among other concepts, these regulations will include the scales to take into account for the calculation of the amounts that the Andalusian government has agreed with Asociafruit and the interprofessional of avocado and the handle.
During his speech in parliamentary commission, Fernández-Pacheco has affirmed that the Board is working so that “the procedure established for the request and granting of compensation is developed in the most agile way possible”, since the presence of the beetle of the Ambrosia It is an issue that “occupies and worries the Ministry of Agriculture.”
The matter has reached the commission at the proposal of the Socialist Group that, through the Andalusian parliamentarian Gerardo Sánchez, has transferred the “concern” of farmers with a plague that has done “much damage” in other parts of the world such as Israel and states Joined. Along with this, he has claimed information on the process of authorization of phytosanitary products to combat it and about the state in which the order of compensation for those affected is located.
