Center for Systematic Entomology, Gainesville, Florida
Date of this Version
March 1991
Abstract
The major agricultural export of Paraguay is cotton. This is mostly produced on 150,000 small permanent farms seldom over 12 acres in size. Cotton is plowed by horse or oxen and picked by hand. The whole family works on the farm with additional hands for harvest. Competition with modern mechanized agriculture is possible because of high yields and low production costs. No other crop has proven as suitable for the Paraguayan small farmer. Upon the arrival of the boll weevil, Anthonomus grandis Boheman, from infested Brazil, costs of production could increase by 500 per cent, making competition on the world market impossible. A disaster of major proportions is predictable.
Comments
Published in Insecta Mundi. Copyright © 1991 by Marengo and Whitcomb.
Insecta Mundi, published by the Center for Systematic Entomology, is available online at http://centerforsystematicentomology.org/.