Vega Baja candy potatoes are below risk. Photo credit score: Trang TRIEU / Unsplash
Sweet potato cultivation in southern Alicante faces a rising risk from a sure tiny creature: the African candy potato weevil. ASAJA (Young Farmers’ Agricultural Association) Alicante stories that the pest now impacts round 30 per cent of the area’s 800 hectares of candy potato crops throughout Vega Baja, together with municipalities resembling Guardamar, Rojales, Catral, San Fulgencio, Almoradí, and Orihuela. The organisation warns that if pressing motion isn’t taken, all the harvest could possibly be misplaced in 2026.
Native to elements of Africa between the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn, the beetle primarily feeds on candy potato however also can injury maize and cotton. Although it isn’t formally categorised as a quarantine pest within the European Union, its impression on native agriculture is elevating critical issues.
Several management methods have been beneficial by authorities, together with earlier planting, using short-cycle varieties, and crop rotation. Other measures embody utilizing formally licensed planting materials, solarising soil through the summer season, and eradicating leftover vegetation and tubers after harvest.
Vega Baja is thought for its horticultural custom, and the world depends on candy potatoes as a strategic crop for employment and financial sustainability. With the area’s candy potato manufacturing estimated at 40 million kilograms, which is value round €20 million, ASAJA Alicante is urging the federal government to approve efficient pesticides and take pressing measures to get the pest below management and shield the native economic system.
