Coffee berry borers

  • PhD: Yves Fotso Fotso, University of Dschang, Jan. 2017-Jan. 2022
  • Supervisors: B. Tsanou, S. Touzeau, F. Grognard, S. Bowong
  • Partners: IRAD

Context

  • Coffee: important cash crop for many countries in the tropics
  • Borers (Hypothenemus hampei) mostly develop and feed in coffee berries, inducing great damages (reduction in berry quality and yield) and economic losses
  • Control methods: insecticides vs cropping practices (removing dropped berries, strip-picking, stump pruning), trapping, biological control (parasitoid or predator insects, entomopathogenic fungi)
  • Existing model(s): simulation model with crop growth and pest control [Gutierrez et al. 1998; Rodríguez et al. 2011; Rodríguez et al. 2013]

A.P. Gutierrez, A. Villacorta, J.R. Cure, C.K. Ellis. Tritrophic analysis of the coffee (Coffea arabica)-coffee berry borer [Hypothenemus hampei (Ferrari)]- parasitoid system. Anais da Sociedade Entomológica do Brasil 27(3): 357-385, 1998. DOI: 10.1590/S0301-80591998000300005

D. Rodriguez, J.R. Cure, J.M. Cotes, A.P. Gutierrez, F. Cantor. A coffee agroecosystem model: I. Growth and development of the coffee plant. Ecological Modelling 222(19): 3626-3639, 2011. DOI: 10.1016/j.ecolmodel.2011.08.003

D. Rodriguez, J.R. Cure, A.P. Gutierrez, J.M. Cotes, F. Cantor. A coffee agroecosystem model: II. Dynamics of coffee berry borer. Ecological Modelling 248: 203-214, 2013. DOI: 10.1016/j.ecolmodel.2012.09.015

Objectives

  • To develop a model representing coffee berry borer damages in various agroforestry systems
  • To design and assess the efficiency of several control strategies, including alternative methods to pesticides

Work progress

Achieved

First approach: single-season framework

  • Single-season model of the coffee berry borer dynamics, based on the insect life-cycle and including the berry availability during a cropping season
    • ODE model: local and global stability (Lyapunov functions) results for the pest-free and endemic equilibria
    • PDE extension, to integrate the berry maturation age: well-posedness and asymptotic analysis
  • Optimal control problem
  • “Pré-soutenance” passed 6 October 2021, PhD defence 17 January 2022 (postponed due to pandemic)

    Yves Fotso Fotso. Modelling, analysis and control of coffee berry borer. University of Dschang, Cameroon, 2022. HAL Id: tel-03608463

Ongoing work

Model extensions

  • Introduction of CBB preference for mature berries (PDE model with berry age structure)

    Yves Fotso Fotso, Suzanne Touzeau, Berge Tsanou, Frédéric Grognard, Samuel Bowong. Mathematical modelling of a pest in an age-structured crop model: the coffee berry borer case. Preprint, 2022. HAL Id: hal-03505679

  • Seasonal model to represent several cropping seasons and harvests (hybrid model)

Misc

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