Potenciación de la Cobertura Vegetal con Plantas Nectariferas como Estrategia para el Desarrollo de Controladores Biológicos de Plagas de Elaeis Quineensis Jack, en Piedemonte de los Llanos Orientales de Colombia

Abstract

Oil palm (Elaeis guineensis Jack) is one of the most important crops in the eastern plains of Colombia. It is currently an important source of direct and indirect employment in the region. Due to its importance and large extensions of planted hectares, this crop requires the use of good agricultural practices so that the productivity of the crop does not affect the environment and is sustainable. For the agronomic management of the crop, in addition to fertilization, irrigation and drainage, adequate pest management is required, focusing on biological pest control, trying to reduce the application of insecticides. In addition, applications of broad-spectrum chemical insecticides also affect beneficial insects, such as pollinators, predators and parasitoids of pests of this crop. Currently, within the integrated management of oil palm pests, biological controllers such as fungi, viruses, nematodes, parasitoids and predators of pest insects are being used as a strategy to reduce the use of chemical products and encourage the proliferation of biological controllers in the natural environment, in the surroundings of the crop, vegetative covers are being established with nectariferous plants that have extrafloral nectaries that secrete nectars that attract these beneficial insects. The objective of this work was "To enhance the vegetation cover by planting nectariferous plants as a strategy to generate the development of natural enemies of the lepidopteran genus Opsiphanes in the plantation of Elaeis guineensis Jack in the Experimental Field Palmar de las Corocoras in the municipality of Paratebueno, Cundinamarca". In the development of this work in the Palmar de las Corocoras experimental field, 2000 nectariferous plants of thirteen species collected in the region have been identified, classified and planted. The seeds of these different species were collected and the nursery was established and later planted in lots 18 of the plantation, since this lot is a new planting and requires good agronomic management. These results are a contribution to the reestablishment of adequate vegetative cover for the development of biological controllers around oil palm crops.