NaCORI unveils trap to catch coffee pests

MASAKA -In a bid to save coffee plantations in the Greater Masaka districts from the black coffee twig borers, the National Coffee Research Institute [ NaCORI ] has developed a bait trap, which uses ethanol/alcohol and soapy water to catch the destructive pest.

NaCORI senior research officer, Dr. Godfrey Kagezi says the trap is cheaply made using local materials such as plastic water bottles, a thread, ethanol /waragi, water, and soap.

He said the innovation if adopted by Robusta coffee farmers, will save them from incurring more losses as well as help them save the money they were spending on pesticides to kill the twig borers.

He said the districts of Masaka, Kyotera, Bukomansimbi, and Kalungu are the most affected in the Greater Masaka, as well as Mukono district.

He added: “We encourage farmers to start using this locally made bait trap as an alternative measure in the fight against twig borer pests.”

To be effective, Kagezi said farmers need to lay a minimum of seven traps at the edges of an acre of a coffee garden. “This method will trap all the twig borer pests and not allow them to enter inside the coffee garden.”

He further urged farmers to make a routine inspection of their coffee plantations and prune the affected coffee twigs.

The scientist said  NaCORI continues to advise coffee farmers to practice intercropping. For instance, he urged them to plant Albizia coriaria, a leguminous specie that provides info-chemicals that repel strange pests like black coffee twig borer.

Joseph Musisi Ssebatta, the chairperson of coffee farmers in Lwengo district said farmers have found it hard to get rid of the black twig borer, despite the advice given by entomologists on recommended pesticides said to kill the pests.

Hassan Lubega a coffee farmer in Kalisizo town council has introduced concoctions of pesticides branded ‘Lwanga Organic Pesticides’ to kill the twig borer pests but NaCORI took samples of this concoction to verify whether it works or not.

According to research done by entomologists, the black coffee twig borer is the major coffee pest affecting the Robusta coffee industry in the country.

Twig borer was first detected in Uganda in 1993. Scientists say it spreads very fast during the dry weather seasons. As it looks for its survival, the borer makes tiny channels on the twigs that bear coffee cherries and lays eggs inside, causing the leaves and twigs to wilt. In the first week after the pest has entered, the leaves on the infested coffee twigs turn dull green, twist inward, and then wilt, as they turn brown.

https://thecooperator.news/dangerous-borer-destroys-over-900-acres-of-coffee-in-kyotera-and-masaka/

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