Know an ecological alternative to control black sigatoka in plantain

The plantain is a crop of great importance for food in our country Venezuela, taking into account that it has suitable climatic characteristics for its growth and development, specifically in the southern area of Lake Maracaibo Venezuela this fruit is consumed a lot taking into account that there is a large amount of planted areas. Among the phytosanitary problems that this crop presents is the black sigatoka that is generated by the fungus Mycosphaerella fijiensis Morelet, which causes a considerable harmful effect on the functional leaves of the plant decreasing the photosynthetic activity, directly influencing the production and quality of the fruits.

For the control of the fungus, commercial fungicides were developed, which began to be used indiscriminately, with this type of management the fungi can generate resistances to certain products, causing changes in commercial brands and increasing the application doses progressively to keep the fungus under control, this is undoubtedly unsustainable in agroecosystems by increasing production costs and water pollution with these substances, in addition, to cause the reduction of functional biodiversity as we have mentioned in many of our articles.

The management with agrochemicals became very common in the Zulia region, creating a great dependence on the application of these products, usually using small planes to spread it throughout the plantation and the leaves will be well impregnated. This shows the high costs for their application and how exposed the surrounding populations were to these substances. Faced with this drawback and with the arrival of sustainable development, an integrated management with ecological alternatives began to be developed to keep the plants nourished with organic fertilizers with different processing methods to obtain plants in better conditions, with a vigorous defense mechanism against the attack of the black sigatoka.

In this same vein, when you want to implement sustainable alternatives, the idea is to look for local resources present in the same production unit so as not to depend on external resources, reduce costs and not alter the conditions of the cultivated ecosystem. Therefore, some producers began to use the rachis, which is nothing more than the floral stem that remains after the plantain is removed for marketing, with this rachis organic fertilizers began to be elaborated, since, according to some chemical reports socialized by some researchers, the rachis is rich in macor and micro nutrients, making it an internal alternative with a lot of potential for fertilization, in this way maintaining a healthy and well-nourished soil to have vigorous and healthy plants.

The organic fertilizer of rachis is liquid, because it comes from the leachates produced by said vegetable waste caused by aerobic decomposition, groups of rachis are placed in inclined mounds so that all the emitted substance is collected in containers. Some researchers such as Arciniegas, Riveros and Loaiza (2002), pointed out that the use of plantain rachis leachates and banana decreases the development of Mycosphaerella fijiensis, making the disease less aggressive, they also point out that the extracted substances contain a high concentration of potassium, which tends to induce resistance to some diseases.

Dear readers, as it could be evidenced, the production of rachis leachate arose with the need to test an alternative to reduce the indiscriminate application of agrochemicals, thus promoting the use of sustainable alternatives for disease management. According to Francis Chaboussou and his theory of trophobiosis, the appearance of pests is caused by the use of synthetic fertilizers since, an imbalance is created in the plant by the existence of an excess of free amino acids, sugars and nitrates in the leaves which makes them more palatable to insects.

On the other hand, organic fertilizers are the result of the decomposition of organic matter, whether animal or vegetable, through the fermentation process and have adequate amounts of macro and micro nutrients on which their nutritional effect is based. These ecological fertilizers are the new technology that is being implemented in many of the mass-produced crops for human consumption, and it has proven to be of great help by acting as growth stimulants for plants.