Management of Coconut Eriophyid Mite (Aceria guerreronis K.) to Revive Coconut Cultivation in Bangladesh

Coconut mite injures the tender portion of young nuts and suck sap. Initially the damage appears as a triangular yellowish brown patch extending distally on the fruit surface from beneath the perianth. The injury ultimately leads to warting and longitudinal fissures on the nut surface. The growth of nut is prevented and ultimately the usual size of the nut, shell, and kernel are reduced. The affected nuts make de-husking operation difficult and reduce fiber quality of the husks. Continuous devastation by the coconut mite made the farmers from Bangladesh to replace their coconut cultivation with other beneficiary crops by cutting down the coconut covering mammoth areas. Considering the potentiality of the problem, a study was conducted in an ecosystem with the approaches for revivification of coconut in Bangladesh through mite management. Different cultural, chemical, botanical treatments and combinations of those were administered on the marked palms as the control measures. The study areas covering around 696 hectares of land including 551 households of eight (8) villages represented an ecosystem unit. Coconut palms in the investigation area were counted as 4429 for the intervention. There were six treatments in the study which were deploying on strategically selected 90 palms. During the entire study period, other palms of the area were treated with 0.2% Propargite 57% EC in an interval of two months. After two years of intervention, each and every nut of the palms of the study area found without any sign of mite attack.