I recently was informed that many, if not all, of the coffee fincas in this area are going to be sprayed with pesticides and fungicides. This process will kill the bees and other pollinators that are in serous trouble, not only here, but worldwide. These creatures are necessary to the environment . I was hoping that Panama would continue on the road to freedom from poisons in their crop production and thus protect what keeps the crops growing and reproducing.
You need to be a member of Boquete Ning to add comments!
Replies
As long as farmers use a mono culture setup, meaning farming large tracts of the same plant, vegetable or coffee, there will be an abundance of fungi and animal pests. These farmers serve up a buffet of food for the bugs. The real answer to this problem is proper perma culture so the smells and other things that attract pests will be dilluted by other plants.
That will allow you to minimize or completely cancel out pesticides and possibly the use of minerals as you can add plants that add certain minerals to the ground that others need.
Now the problem with this is that it will increase the cost of planting and harvesting and we are too used to cheap groceries instead of planting our own food (me included unfortunately)...
So many people seem interested in telling OTHER people how they should grow things, or operate their farms. A few people like Ron & Kim Miller and others have actually done the hard work to bring healthy, and pesticide free (more or less) crops to the table. Let's take an example from them.
Emphatic exaggerations such as 'tons of jugs' tend to discredit anything factual the post has to say and it's not the first time.
I certainly agree that there is overuse of this stuff here and I admire you guys for growing your own.
So you say. Would you rather I say a large number? Most readers got the message without being even the least bit critical over such a minute point. I guess you do not have much to do. Your life must be very boring if all you got to do is criticize peoples choice of words.
Look Joseph, I said 'Here we go again' because during your last Discussion on this subject you told me to 'Go to any Melo store and ask the salesman. See how many 5 gallon containers of Roundup he has...'
Got it?
picky, picky, picky. People are better off when they see for themselves. I am not trying to get readers to take my word for anything.
I may be able to shed some light on this.
This is a message I was sent through a SCAP mailing list. It is a newly available alternative for rust and borer being offered by sales reps using SCAPs mailing list. Verdadero is a systemic fungicide and pesticide. I would imagine this would be harmful to pollinators which is most probably self defeating as coffee is pollinated by bees. Further, I doubt whether consumers will love the idea of having systemic pesticide in their coffee beans. I am sure anyone with a coffee bush is welcome to show up on 29th and ask questions.
I bet that many will use it. I won't be. I agree with those below that micro nutrients, proper shade and very clean husbandry are enough to stop the fungus and the borer. However, as we all know the mentality here is mostly about reacting vs preventing and is not usually very long sighted either.
Email I received:
Buenas tardes estimados, Syngenta y Cruz del Sur Duwest tienen el agrado de invitarlos al lanzamiento de VERDADERO 60 WG una nueva alternativa para su cafetal, esperamos contar con su presencia el día 29 de abril en los molinos en Boquete.
Para cualquiera consulta se pueden comunicar con David Cerrud de Cruz del Sur al 6614-7665, Andres Sarmiento de Cruz del Sur 6931-1127 ó Anibal Aguilar de syngenta al 64309185.
Bad news stuff. The active fungicide is something that is currently used and in itself not a great hazard to insects, however the insecticide is of the synthetic nicotinoid family. Not good for bees. If you can read Spanish, read the Application and Safety bulletin,
http://www3.syngenta.com/country/gt/sp/Soluciones/Fichas%20Tecnicas...
Concur, very bad news. The more enlightened would realize that open pollination of coffee greatly improves yield. I stumbled on this fact accidentally as I have apiaries of native and honey bees on my farm. For Geisha this is particularly important as it is low yielding to begin with. I found my Tipica and Geisha trees achieved incredible fruit set and the catuai produced so much that not even the coffee experts could understand this on 2.5 yr old trees.
Without bees or insects, coffee is self pollinating but the results will be much lower yields and less good individual cherries. There is research from the Smithsonian on this IN PANAMA as well as a professor at Newcastle Uni in the UK who showed that the caffeine reward in coffee nectar has evolved in the plant as food reward for BEES.
I am afraid the overall education level here is poor, understanding of environment well below par and I am not at all optimistic about where this will go.
What I do know is that I can sell my coffee for premium prices because it is pollinator friendly and my customers do not want to consume pesticide in any shape or form. Me neither.
I'm trying to find out about Boquete and the surrounding area?
Is there a lot of farmland surrounding this city?
If so, do most of the farmers use insecticides/pesticides, etc.?
Where is the best place to live in that area where there is just mountain land or animal farms where the insecticides/pesticides would not be blowing your way?
-
1
-
2
-
3
of 3 Next