By SOBEYDA ALVAREZ

A microbiological agent is a microorganism capable of causing illness and mortality in the population. The microorganism could be fungus bacteria and virus.

The liberation of biological agents like Trichlozam that results most effective combating plagues than recognized chemicals in the market has generated in the last year new economic alternatives for the growers interested in new economic alternatives for their vegetable crops that, besides lowering the price by at least US$ 150 per hectare and an increase of at least 25% of production, promote sustainable agriculture as was indicated by Ricardo Lardizabal, production manager for FINTRAC.

Trichlozam is a certified fungicide whose active ingredient is Thrichoderma spp, fungus that controls Fuarium spp, Rhizoctonia spp and Pythium spp and Phytophtora spp, all responsible for the illness known as “mal del talluelo” (stem malady). Thrichlozam is a product elaborated in the Central America Center for Biological Control, an investigative unit of the Sciences and Production Agricultural career in Zamorano. FINTRAC keeps a relation of cooperation with the institution for the past two years, involving specialists, students and technicians searching for alternatives for the control of plagues through microbiological agents that have cero toxicity for people, animals, and the environment in general.

“In Honduras there are no laboratories dedicated to the production of microbiological agents to control pests, and most of the natural products are imported from Colombia, United States, Mexico, Germany, and other countries, which represents elevated costs for the producers. In the Center for Biological control of Zamorano, with the help of FINTRAC we develop and adapt technologies for the integrated management of plagues known in other parts of the world and until know, difficult to do in Central America” said Rogelio Trabaninno, coordinator of the center of Investigation.

The biological control of illnesses reduces costs by $150 to $50 and increases the production in the fields by from 15% to 25% per hectare.

“The identification of plagues and illnesses and practical courses in the field have reduced the use of chemicals by 50%. The producers use pesticides and traditional methods for plague control only after identifying a particular problem in the field. When the adequate product is selected, this not only benefits the environment and the production, but also the workers who reduce the risk of exposure to toxic substances explained Lardizabal.

The impact on economic and production terms with the use of biological caused a raise in the demand from the part of the Honduran producers and others from other countries, and this is why FINTRAC, with funds from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) who provided the laboratory equipment valued in more than 58 thousand dollars to the Center for Biological Control for Centroamerica of Zamorano. The objective is to refurbish and strengthen the capacity of the production to continue providing systems of biological control to Honduran and regional producers.

“In monetary terms, the support is small if we consider the work and achievements to this date. The illness and plague control with the use of natural methods is extraordinary. By joining with seriously involved enterprises such as Zamorano, FINTRAC can achieve its primordial mission of increasing productivity and sales of its beneficiaries in a sustainable way, said Lardizabal.

To broaden the distribution network and the availability of the biological agents, Zamorano established an alliance with a recognized agricultural company that is in charge of distributing the product to as many Honduran producers as possible and other parts of the region. Parallel to this the Center continues to perform research and investigation and development of new products.

The Trichlozam is being used in almost 13 thousand hectares in 14 departments of Honduras, the crops include bell peppers, jalapeno peppers, melon, watermelon, cucumber, tomato, onions and potatos.

“Some months ago we liberated two new biological products: Verzam and Bazam “ said Trabanino, “the Verzam is a microbial agent based on Vertcillium Lecanni, a fungus that affects soft body insects like the white fly Bemisia Tabasci, Pulgones Myzus spp, Trips Thrips spp, and mites from the Tretachynus group, it acts on contact and once the fungus starts to develop amongst the insects these stop feeding and die.

The Bazam has a similar action, its basic component is the Beauveria Bassiana is effective against the coffee broca, the banana picuda and the Leptidopterous larvae.

The teachers, technicians and students from Zamorano work on a daily basis to find alternatives to fight disease that will reduce the use of agro chemicals.

For mid 2004 it is expected that between 50% and 70% of the producers will be using plague biological controls in their farms.

In Honduras to arrive to a climate where we use only biological products will take a few years. We are in the tropics, where illnesses and plagues are present all year, countries in the North and the South have the advantage of suffering freezes that make it easy to achieve effective control. Nevertheless, if the investigation efforts and the technology transference such as Footrace’s continue, with the support from Zamorano, in the future this can be achieved, concluded Lardizabal.

The products are developed at the Central American center for Biological control in Zamorano with the help of FINTRAC. The Ing. Rogelio Trabanino was the coordinator of the investigation project and new technology dissemination that explains that the producers until now, could only obtain biological products in the United States or South America.