The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development launched the Comprehensive and Strategic Agronomic Plan for the National Citrus Sector, which includes joint actions to strengthen this perennial crop and counteract the effects of huanglongbing (HLB) and drought, among others, which affect citrus-producing states.
During the presentation of the strategy, the head of Agriculture, Víctor Villalobos Arámbula, emphasized that this sector is one of the most relevant for its contribution to the Mexican countryside, due to its socioeconomic context and jobs generated, since in 2022 citrus fruits were the fourth group of crops with the highest sales abroad (862 million dollars).
He noted that, as it is a dynamic sector with a large participation in domestic and foreign markets, it is necessary to keep it orderly and, above all, to prevent climatic and phytosanitary contingencies.
Among the sanitary challenges, he mentioned that HLB represents the greatest threat, since it can cause unexpected damage to production and, therefore, socioeconomic problems, as has occurred in other countries and producing regions of the Americas, such as Florida, United States.
Victor Villalobos said that in a previous work meeting with representatives of the sector, strategies were generated to strengthen the phytosanitary and productive status that Mexico maintains, which has allowed it to position itself as one of the main producers of oranges, Mexican lemons, Persian lemons, limes and grapefruit.
Also, he said, a first approach was made with representatives of producers, the National Association of Citrus Processors (Anaproci, by its Spanish acronym), ministers of Agricultural Development and decentralized bodies such as the National Institute of Forestry, Agricultural and Livestock Research (INIFAP, by its Spanish acronym), the National Service of Health, Safety and Agri-Food Quality (Senasica) and the Postgraduate Association (Colpos, by its Spanish acronym).
The objective, he said, was to carry out a productive and phytosanitary diagnosis, both nationally and by state, which was sent to the state governments of the citrus-producing entities for their knowledge and thus close ranks jointly federation, states, municipalities, producers and industry, under a coordinated plan, and thus, under this synergy, seek to multiply individual efforts.
Villalobos Arámbula explained that these discussions resulted in this Integral and Strategic Agronomic Plan, which will strengthen individual efforts and provide certainty to this important production chain in the country.
The Minister delegated this effort to the team of the General Coordination of Agriculture, headed by Santiago Arguello Campos, with the support of Senasica, INIFAP and Colpos, and considers as a fundamental strategy the training of producers from 25 entities to transfer techniques for the proper nutrition and care of sweet and sour citrus trees and thus lengthen their productive life.
On behalf of the chief director of Senasica, Javier Calderón Elizalde, the general director of Plant Health, Francisco Ramírez y Ramírez, commented that HLB is considered the most devastating disease of citrus worldwide and without cure so far, since infested plants will eventually die, but with proper agronomic-phytosanitary management, they can be given a long life of quality and with them healthy fruits and maintain the quality of citrus that distinguishes Mexico.
For this reason, he added, it is essential that producers are trained on the subject and apply the necessary measures to preserve the productivity of their orchards.
He explained that it has caused the elimination of millions of trees of different citrus species in Africa, Asia and America, and so far there is a lack of practical and safe curative treatments, as well as resistant rootstocks and varieties.
In Mexico, it was detected in 2009 and is currently present in citrus-growing areas in 352 municipalities in 23 states of the country, he said.
Ramírez y Ramírez pointed out that, according to industry data, the area affected by HLB in Mexico is estimated at 307,805 hectares, equivalent to about 50 percent of the national citrus area.
The general director of INIFAP, Luis Angel Rodriguez del Bosque, said that the agency will provide training to producers and technicians under a comprehensive curriculum on topics according to the phrenologies of the crop, on the agro-climatic requirements of citrus, new technologies and the best techniques to nourish the trees.
In addition, training will be provided to non-certified nurseries to strengthen their productive capacity and guarantee the quality and health of plants for planting, thus maintaining future production and productivity.
The general director of Trusts Instituted in Relation to Agriculture (FIRA, by its Spanish acronym), Jesús Alán Elizondo Flores, indicated that during the last five years the organization has granted financing for a value of 1.6 billion pesos in citrus fruits.
He highlighted that investment opportunities for more than 4.6 billion pesos have been detected, mainly in Veracruz, Michoacán and Colima, especially for the renewal of plantations with certified plants and increased densities, as well as irrigation technification, among other investment concepts and in line with this Integral and Strategic Agronomic Plan for the National Citrus Sector.
The president of the Mexican Association of Secretaries of Agricultural Development (AMSDA), Jaime Montes Salas, said that the state heads of agriculture are aware of the challenges facing citriculture, so they will actively participate in the initiative and encouraged all the secretaries of the participating states to make synergy with the federation.
The event was also attended by the leaders of the Mexican Lemon, Persian and Citrus Product Systems, Bernardo Bravo Manríquez, César Cortés Bello and Antonio Juan Soberón Ferrer, respectively, and the president of the National Association of Citrus Processors (Anaproci, by its Spanish acronym), Alberto de la Fuente, who emphasized the importance of updating the list of citrus farms in the country in order to better define the actions of this plan.
In addition, they committed, together with their members, to contribute to this comprehensive plan for its compliance and strengthening.
Agronomic management to extend the productive life of trees As a result of the joint work between Senasica and growers, for more than 13 years Mexico has been successful in mitigating the effects of HLB by managing the insect vector.
In this way, the country has maintained its production levels and, through agricultural research institutions, continues to search for alternatives to advance in the management of HLB in the medium and long term.
Currently, the HLB problem has worsened in some regions of the country due to the effects of climate change, such as drought and atypical high temperatures during most of the day.
This makes it essential for growers to carry out agronomic management tasks in their orchards to protect and extend the productive life of their trees, actions for which the agricultural authorities provide them with advice.
Despite HLB, more than 8.6 million tons of citrus are produced and the production area has increased to more than 600,000 hectares, of which 61.46 percent corresponds to sweet citrus, 34.96 percent to lemons and 3.55 percent to grapefruit.
During the last 14 years, Senasica technicians have trained and raised awareness among more than 191 thousand members of the citrus chain about the phytosanitary problems faced by this productive sector and the management options available to protect and strengthen the trees.
In the training events, the official staff urges producers to standardize their practices to face HLB with actions that include regional vector control; nutrition of the trees; elimination of those that are dying and planting or replanting with certified healthy plants from nurseries certified by Senasica.
To provide citrus growers with healthy plants, Agriculture has certified 44 production nurseries, 20 bud-producing lots, 10 seed-producing orchards and one foundation lot, i.e., groups of strictly certified plants and seeds.
The location and contact details of these certified establishments can be found at the following link: https://www.gob.mx/senasica/documentos/invernaderos-directorio-fitosanitario.
Senasica, through its Auxiliary Plant Health Organizations (OASV, by its Spanish acronym), and INIFAP work in coordination to implement monitoring actions through a network of 38,440 yellow sticky contact traps to capture the insect vector of the disease, the Asian citrus psyllid, a moth that transmits the Candidatus Liberibacter asiaticus bacterium, which causes the disease, from a diseased tree to a healthy one.
Through the National Campaign against Regulated Citrus Pests, Agriculture also carries out chemical and biological control of the Asian citrus psyllid in areas with a higher risk of developing the disease.
Biological control involves the use of entomopathogenic fungi, which infect and kill the insect vector, as well as the production and release of the parasitoid Tamarixia radiata, the main natural enemy of the Asian citrus psyllid.
The function of this beneficial insect is to parasitize the immature stages (nymphs) of the vector. Each parasitized nymph irremediably causes the death of the moth, because the larva of Tamarixia feeds on its ventral part and when it completes its biological cycle, it makes a hole to emerge through the dead body of the vector and in this way permanently repeats its beneficial activity throughout the year.
Since 2009, the Agriculture agency has released more than 70 million parasitoids on more than 100,000 commercial hectares.
Plant health specialists apply these control actions in more than 60 strategic areas in the different citrus growing regions of Baja California, Baja California Sur, Campeche, Chiapas, Colima, Durango, Guerrero, Hidalgo, Jalisco, Michoacán, Morelos, Nayarit, Nuevo León, Oaxaca, Puebla, Querétaro, Quintana Roo, San Luis Potosí, Sinaloa, Sonora, Tabasco, Tamaulipas, Veracruz, Yucatán and Zacatecas.