LEAF FALL DISEASE. A leaf infected with pestalotiopsis. Caused by the fungus pestalotiopsis microspora, it triggers leaf fall and the eventual death of the rubber plant. (Michal Mañas/Wikimedia)
KIDAPAWAN CITY, North Cotabato – The Office of the Provincial Agriculturist (OPAG) here has confirmed the presence of “pestalotiopsis” in two North Cotabato rubber-producing towns.
Rogaya Acoy, the OPAG crop protection coordinator, said pestalotiopsis, also known as the leaf fall disease, was traced in a 16-hectare rubber plantation in Sitio Israel, Barangay New Abra, Matalam town; and in a 1.5-hectare rubber farm in Sitio Balawan, Barangay Malasila, Makilala town.
“After the report, we immediately came to check some visible symptoms and collect samples for laboratory testing that came out positive,” she said in an interview Wednesday.
Acoy said the rubber plant disease was not due to its proliferation from outside the province, “but may have developed itself in the infected villages.”
“The disease has long been present there and just waiting to get activated by certain environmental conditions,” she added.
The pestalotiopsis activates in areas prone to humidity associated with vast planting distances and overlapping branches.
Acoy said the two affected villages are located in secluded geographical areas and not exposed to any transients that could bring infestations of any plant disease.
With this, the OPAG said it has increased its efforts to ensure that plantation workers have access to personal protective equipment and prevent the transport of materials from the infested areas.
In January this year, Governor Emmylou Taliño-Mendoza directed the provincial agriculturist office to intensify its monitoring and checkpoints to prevent the possible entry of the leaf-fall rubber disease in the province.
Areas banned from sending rubber planting materials in North Cotabato are Basilan province in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao and areas under the Zamboanga Peninsula Region.
Rubber is one of the major agricultural industries in North Cotabato that serves as a primary source of livelihood and income for thousands of farmers. (PNA)
