Logging ‘cause’ of pod borer spreading

 SENIOR National Agriculture Quarantine Inspection Authority entomologist David Tenakanai says logging practices in Papua New Guinea could be contributing to the spread of the cocoa pod borer.

He was commenting yesterday on an outbreak of cocoa pod borer in Finschhafen, Morobe, in which 300 farmers who own 19,950 cocoa trees were said to have been affected by the pest.

Tenakanai told The National that the pest was resident to PNG, making its home primarily in ton trees in the rainforests. 

But now that the trees were being cut down for their valuable timber, the pest was moving to the cocoa tree.

“The ton tree is a good valuable timber,” he said.

“But it’s the natural host for cocoa pod borer. The ton tree and also the rambuttan tree are the primary hosts of cocoa pod borer.

Tenakanai said containing the disease was no longer a NAQIA responsibility. The onus was now on the PNG Cocoa and Coconut Institute and respective provincial divisions of agriculture and livestock in the provinces.

“We (NAQIA) haven’t been to Finschhafen,” he said.

“Cocoa pod borer is spreading. With regards to NAQIA, we don’t have anything in place for cocoa pod borer.

“We’ve left that responsibility in place with the Cocoa Coconut Institute and the provincial divisions of agriculture and livestock.”

Meanwhile, the PNG Cocoa and Coconut Institute (PNGCCI) has not ruled out the possibility of logging activities in the country contributing to increasing cocoa pod borer infestations.

PNGCCI leaning and capacity building leader, Anton Varvaliu, confirmed that cocoa pod borer was native to PNG and lived on ton and rambutan trees, but with ton increasingly being logged for timber, it was resorting to the cocoa tree.