2023-04-20 13:53:21
A crop that occupies 50,000 ha
Fruits
Occupying nearly 50,000 hectares, the apple tree ranks second in fruit-bearing rosacea, just after the almond tree. The Draâ-Tafilatet and Fez-Meknes regions alone occupy nearly two-thirds of the national area.
You have to go back to the 1920s to identify the first apple tree plantations in Morocco. This crop, which currently occupies nearly 50,000 hectares (two thirds of which are present in the Draâ-Tafilatet and Fez-Meknes regions) faces many pests including the codling moth.
To see more clearly, INRA recently published a document on pests harmful to apples and pears. It sheds light on the life cycles of this apple worm and the methods and strategies for controlling this insect. We learn that this culture is confronted with a certain number of diseases and pests which jeopardize production in terms of quantity and quality, increasing the phytosanitary costs of the producer and above all implying a massive use of pesticides.
“Indeed, we are at some 25 chemical interventions in our yards and this against all the harmful bio-aggressors of this crop; treatments directed primarily against codling moth, mites, scab, powdery mildew, fire blight and other diseases and pests. The chemical fight against the codling moth alone requires nearly 12 treatments per campaign on average”, explains the same source.
In this sense, INRA indicates that a simple bite of this insect makes the fruit unsuitable for marketing. “It has been observed that despite the efforts made to control the presence of the codling moth in certain orchards, both in Morocco and in other countries practicing apple trees in conventional mode, the damage remains increasingly significant in the harvest. This control failure is explained by the poorly administered treatments either for technical reasons (inadequate equipment, non-compliant doses, etc.) or poorly controlled reasoning for the dates of intervention”, note the INRA researchers, noting that this insect is resistant due to genetic and enzymatic factors.
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