Níveis de dano econômico para cupins (Insecta: Isoptera) em cana-de-açúcar

• Autor(a) principal: Lima, Marcela Miranda de
• Data de Publicação: 2008
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: LOCUS Repositório Institucional da UFV
• Texto Completo: http://locus.ufv.br/handle/123456789/3876
• topic: Cupim; Cana-de-açúcar; Nível de dano econômico; Manejo integrado de pragas; Termite; Sugarcane; Economic injury levels; Integrated pest management; CNPQ::CIENCIAS AGRARIAS::AGRONOMIA::FITOSSANIDADE

Termites are considered a key pest of sugarcane in Brazil and preventive control measures are usually recommended. It is not known, however, if termites really cause yield losses in sugarcane at any level of infestation and if the loss economically justfies the preventive control currently in use in the country. The objective of this work was to evaluate the effect of natural termite infestations on sugarcane productivity, as a base to establish when termite control would be economically viable. Random block experimental design was used, with productivity parameters - cane yield (tonnes of stalk per hectare), sucrose content of the juice (pol) and expected sugar yield (tonnes of pol/ha) - as response variables; termite infestation, variety and cropping season as explanatory variables, and fields as blocks. This study demonstrates a signficant relationship between natural termite infestation in sugarcane and reduction in sugar yield. Termites cause mensurable damage to ratoon sugarcane by reducing the expected sugar yield as termite infestations increase, being the reduction of 0.04558 tonnes of pol/ha per year for increases of 1% of termite infestation. They do so by reducing the cane yield but they do not affect the sucrose content of the juice. The reduction in cane yield is of 0.2755 tonnes of stalk/ha per year related to increases of 1 % in termite infestation. Our study shows that given the dilution of the control price of termites over the period of the crop and the high level of damage related to termite presence in the field, higher investments in termite control are economically suitable and could increase sugarcane productivity. Methods of termite control that are environmentally safe and economically viable must be pursued in order to reduce losses associated to increase sugarcane productivity.