Costa Rica Declares National Crop Emergency For Bananas; Warming Climate Boosts Insect Pests

[hatrack]

Tuesday the Agriculture and Livestock Ministry’s State Phytosanitary Services (SFE) issued a statement declaring a national crop emergency for bananas, one of Costa Rica’s most important agricultural exports, over the proliferation of mealybugs and scale insects across the country’s Atlantic banana-growing regions.

Experts have had their eyes peeled over the last several years, keeping watch over a growing pest problem that threatens Costa Rica’s multi-million-dollar banana industry as climate change bolsters insect populations.

SFE Director Magda González told The Tico Times Wednesday that climate change plays an important role in the countrywide infestation. “Climate change, by affecting temperature, favors the conditions under which [the insects] reproduce,” González said, as do changes in rain patterns. She estimated that these conditions could shorten the bugs’ reproduction cycle by one third.

“I can tell you with near certainty that climate change is behind these pests,” she said.

EDIT

http://www.ticotimes.net/More-news/News-Briefs/Climate-change-blamed-for-Costa-Rica-s-national-banana-emergency-_Wednesday-December-11-2013

[freshwest]

1. Oh, no, we has no bananas! Things are gonna get more buggy, very true! n/t