There are problems with export because of flies. The pests can reduce the export potential of the South Kazakhstani melon growers

Due to agricultural pests, the export potential of South-Kazakhstan melon growers may decrease

Owners of peasant farms in Southern Kazakhstan are alarmed: a melon fly, which has caused great damage to the crop in recent years, may appear on melons in the fields this year. Last season, losses from the invasion of this pest were estimated in billions of tenge (!). Local melon growers who addressed this problem with the Chamber assure that they even had no idea about these insects five years ago.

What a pest?

As experts say, the melon fly is a quarantine pest, which lives in melon fruits. It is widely spread in the Mediterranean, the Caucasus and Asia, and now here in Kazakhstan. During flowering, the larvae of dangerous pests get into the ripening fruit and damage it from the inside. One female fly lays up to 20 eggs. It is dangerous to eat such a melon, you can’t use it as a feed for cattle.

It is very difficult to track the situation and to identify infected fruits at the early stages, say experts, because ripe and healthy melons and watermelons are affected from the inside, and the infected fruit externally has a healthy and healthy appearance. Puncture sites of flesh can serve as a medium for the development of viral and fungal diseases. Considering the fact that the main period of life the fly spends inside the fruit or in the ground, it is difficult to fight with it. Therefore, it is necessary to apply mainly preventive methods.

The first centers of the flies were detected in 2004 in the Kyzylorda region, bordering with Karakalpakstan, the Republic of Uzbekistan. At that time, almost 50% of the area sown with melons and gourds in seven districts of this region was infected by it.

In the SKR, a melon fly appeared for the first time in 2011, and a year later, its foci were found in all 9 regions, where melons are grown - Arysa, Baidibek, Kyzigurt, Maktaral, Otrar, Ordabasin, Saryagash, Shardara and Turkestan. Despite the ongoing quarantine and protective measures against the flies, the area of the pest spread increased every year.

They shed tears… after calculating losses ...

Last year, experts from the Ministry of Agriculture calculated the losses from the invasion of the melon fly: the sown area of melon in the SKR alone was about 40 thousand hectares. The level of loss of melon harvest from melon flour equals 50% and the lowest wholesale price 40 tenge / kg, economic losses amounted to 15 billion tenge, or 100 million US dollars per year.

This year more than 62.5 thousand hectares are allocated in the region for melons. The largest area for melons and water-melons was allocated in Maktaral, Shardara, Otrar regions. In past years, the melon fly destroyed up to 30% of the crop here. Peasants had to do treat harvest with all sorts of things - there was no special preparation that destroys or prevents the appearance of a pest. That is why they widely used chemical preparations and insectides. But as a result of repeated treatment of crops, the pest developed resistance to them, and melons did not become better from it, on the contrary, they accumulated toxic substances from chemical preparations.

 South Kazakhstan annually provides 70% of melons to the whole republic. The agrarians of the south each summer are able to collect more than 1.5 million tons of watermelons and melons. The lion's share is traditionally exported. It is possible that the melon fly can force changes to the plans this year, as it was in Karakalpakstan, where half of the harvest was lost because of the invasion of the pest.

"The most lamentable thing in this situation is that the peasants had to tackle the problem on their own. They independently, as they can, poison the pest, - complains the expert of the Chamber of Entrepreneurs of SKR Nurlybek Boranbaev. - There is no state program to counter the melon fly, there is no comprehensive approach to combating this pest. It is necessary to conduct comprehensive research work to establish the causes of the spread of melon fly and methods of combating it. What are we talking about? We do not even hold training seminars for peasants, which would explain how to deal with this fly".

How does it happen abroad?

Fighting the fruit fly (a kind of our melon fly) is a serious problem for many countries. There there are special programs to prevent the appearance and counteract this pest at the state level. In many European countries, a method of control has been introduced, such as the use of sterilized males.

This method consists in mass breeding of male flies that have been sterilized with the help of small doses of radiation in infected regions where they mate with wild females. They do not produce offspring, as a result of which such a method can lead to a decrease in the population of harmful insects in an environmentally safe way, if it is applied systematically in a certain territory. In Japan, for example, this method was used to eliminate completely this pest.

At the meetings of the committee of the agro-industrial complex, where the peasants discussed the problems of fighting our melon fly, it was suggested to adopt the best experience of the countries that had defeated this pest. But in order to exterminate an insect, we need support from the state.

In this regard, the committee members wrote a letter to NCE RK "Atameken" to raise this problem at the highest level, which would consider the issue of targeted funding for scientific research on the biological substantiation of technology of mass separation and regimes of radiation sterilization of the flies, and assistance in obtaining technical support from the IAEA for the further establishment of a bio-factory for the production of sterile male flies in the country.

Anxiety. The moth comes!

According to the expert of the Chamber, 14 quarantine pests are spreading on the territory of the Republic of Kazakhstan, and every year they spread to new territories.

In one of the greenhouses of Saryagash district, which are leaders in the development of greenhouse farming in the republic, a tomato moth was discovered last year. The losses of nightshade crops, including tomatoes from the especially dangerous quarantine pest - South American tomato moth (Tuta absoluta Povolny), make up 80 - 100% in protected soil conditions, thus causing significant economic damage to agricultural producers. After all, pesticides are used in the fight against this pest, and are used many times, which leads to the accumulation of chemicals in tomatoes. You do not need to be a scientist to foresee the negative consequences of such a struggle.

 The solution of the problem is to develop an ecologically safe system for protection of tomatoes from South American tomato moths in protected soil conditions using biological means. To this end, it is necessary to create a network of bio-laboratories for greenhouse farms in the republic for mass reproduction of insect entomophages. Experts are studying the experience of Russians in combating these dangerous pests.

Last year, phytosanitors carried out measures to kill locusts. The reproductive period is considered the most dangerous, since insect larvae are voracious. Within a few weeks, the larvae become adult pests and began to move to neighboring areas. This will lead to the destruction of a large volume of crops, say experts.

While the South-Kazakhstan melon growers are struggling with this scourge, phytosanitary doctors are trying to prevent the appearance of other pests. So, last year almost 20 tons of Spanish peaches were not allowed to pass through the border after they found another pest in ripe fruits - the Mediterranean fruit fly.

The most common fruit in Kazakhstan - apples - as it turned out, also did not escape the attack. The Agro-business 2020 development program Kazakhstan plans to provide 600,000 tons of apples to the domestic market by 2020 and export 400 thousand tons of apples to the Russian Federation. It is planned to expand the area of ​​gardens, but the program may be under a breakdown due to a quarantine disease of bacterial fetal burn. To subsidize the laying of fruit and berry crops and grapes, it is planned to allocate 3.4 billion KZT annually until 2020. The allocation of these subsidies does not make sense without addressing the problem of bacterial fetal burn.

What to do?

The answer to the eternal question is given by economist and practitioner in the field of agro-industrial complex with many years of experience Nurlybek Boranbaev.

 "To solve the problem of food security, it is necessary to allocate a separate targeted research program at the state level for the Kazakh Research Institute of Plant Protection and Quarantine to fight quarantine pests to ensure phytosanitary security", - he said.

The problem can’t be solved without the creation of a state program for the localization and elimination of foci of quarantine pests. And this requires the development and implementation of an environmentally friendly system of protective measures, safe for the environment and public health. The work must be involved in specialized research institutions and the State Inspection Committee in the Agro-Industrial Complex of the Ministry of Agriculture of the RK with divisions, notes N. Boranbaev. The economist explained in a letter to NCE "Atameken" his vision, together with the proposals of farmers of South Kazakhstan.