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More than 2000 hectares of land planted with corn in the Vurgut field, in Finiq, Saranda and Konispol has been affected and is being damaged every day by the most serious parasite of this crop, Diabrotica virgifera, otherwise known as the root parasite.
Its larvae feed on corn roots, which reduces the plant’s ability to absorb water and nutrients from the soil while the adult insect feeds on cob silk damaging pollination.
Local agricultural experts suspect that the parasite larvae may have entered Albania through the import of used agricultural equipment, possibly from Greece as in the Vurg field one of the most important corn economies in the country the situation is recorded for the first time.
Farmers spotted the damage almost 10 days ago but the fact that the parasite was unknown to them may have worsened the situation, now threatening almost 50% of production.
Experts from the Ministry of Agriculture conducting field verifications recommended spraying with an approved insecticide pesticide but there is still no answer as to whether there will be aid for aerial spraying. Every day aggravates the situation even more as the rate of spread is very high.
Spraying with agricultural tools, which has started, in addition to automatically destroying 15% of the production, does not enable the timely prevention of the phenomenon, moreover, not all farmers are doing it.
In the Vurg field the maize production provides the livelihood of more than 400 farmers in addition to hundreds of agricultural workers. Added to the added costs of crops, seeds, irrigation, fuel, fertilizers this year is the tremendous damage of the parasite Diabrotica virgifera.
The insect thought to have originated in Central America arrived in Europe and caused serious damage in the early 1990s and has since cost the European economy over 472 million euros each year.
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