The resistance of pests and diseases to conventional control and the search for biocontrol alternatives

Abstract

Technical and scientific evidence shows that conventional control of pests and diseases is constantly losing effectiveness and the producers uses not ideal strategies to maintain the incidence and severity of these at a point that does not exceed the economic thresholds, using mainly strategies such as increasing doses, which sometimes reach fivefold or reduce the frequency of application of pesticides.
In the productive zones of the north of the country there is a hegemony of crops for which the presence of pests or diseases is constant for example for the potato crop in the province of Carchi, a set of active ingredients have been "popularized" for the control of late blight (Phytophthora infestans), among the main ones we have Phenylamides, Carbamates, Carboxamides, Dithiocarbamates, among others; for all those mentioned there is scientific
evidence with a constant tendency for the pathogen to resist the fungicide.
In view of the mentioned, the academy, especially the Polytechnic State University of Carchi, has the responsibility to investigate alternatives to control pests and diseases that avoid extending the problem of resistance With this consideration it is necessary to implement a baseline of resistance at the regional level in order to know the behavior of pathogens towards pesticides, since the behavior varies constantly from one site to another, in this way it will be possible to identify highly resistant strains or those that claudicate with chemical management With all this information, pest and disease management plans can be designed according to local reality with high effectiveness.