International magazine highlights Santa Catarina’s action to control passion fruit viruses

Disease control includes several research actions, rural extension, plant defense and public policies (Photo: Divulgação/Epagri)

One of the world’s leading horticultural publications, Chronica Horticulturae from the International Society for Horticultural Science, published an article signed by professionals from Epagri and other institutions, reporting collective action carried out in Santa Catarina to control the fruit hardening virus, a disease that put passion fruit production in the State at risk. The article is on the cover of the magazine, which has been published since 1961 and is considered a renowned channel of communication between scientists in the field of fruits, vegetables and ornamentals and society.

Santa Catarina produces one of the best passion fruits in Brazil. The 2023/24 harvest is estimated at 70 thousand tons, which places the State as the third largest producer of the fruit in the country. The cultivated area is around 2 thousand hectares, 90% of which are located in the south of Santa Catarina. The average productivity is 35 tons per hectare.

This entire production chain could have been compromised by fruit hardening virus, detected in 2016 in orchards in the south of the state. The article describes the main integrated management actions developed in Santa Catarina to control the disease.

According to Henrique Belmonte Petry, a researcher at Epagri and one of the authors of the article, controlling the fruit hardening virus includes several research actions, rural extension, plant defense and public policies. “In addition to allowing the maintenance of the productive area, collective action enabled an increase in the productivity of orchards in Santa Catarina, due to the use of good production practices by the sector and compliance with the health legislation in force in the State”, he details. One of the innovations introduced was the production of seedlings in a protected environment, which has been carried out by around 400 nurseries in Santa Catarina.

This entire strategy is detailed in the article. In addition to Petry, researcher Márcio Sônego and extensionists Darlan Rodrigo Marchesi and Diego Adílio da Silva, all from Epagri, signed the text. The work is also signed by Edson Bertolini, professor at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS) and the technician at Cidasc Daniel Remor Moritz.

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