The purpose of this work was to identify pests and diseases associated to cashew crop in Caribia research center of Agrosavia. For 24 months, a monthly monitoring of the different structures of the plant was carried out and the arthropods found to cause damage were collected, as well as tissue samples with symptoms or signs of any disease. Eleven species of pest insects were identified, grouped into seven families and four orders. In addition, six pathogens that caused diseases in different tree structures were identified. Of the phytosanitary problems found, Leptoglossus zonatus Dallas (Hemiptera: Coreidae) and anthracnose are reported as the most relevant for this crop.

Maintaining some productivity of the Creole yam (Dioscorea alata L.), affected by anthracnose (Colletotrichum gloeosporioides), from agrochemicals, generates changes in soil fertility, water quality and in the agricultural ecosystem of peasant agri-food production, but the proportion in which the management of an endemic fungus impacts and therefore persistent over time is unknown. This situation leads to investigate the environmental, economic, and social impact caused by the management of anthracnose in the cultivation of yam in the municipality of Colosó, department of Sucre, Colombia. A descriptive quantitative methodology was followed; A sample of 135 producers participated from techniques such as direct observation, interviews, surveys, focus groups and for the trade-off analysis of environmental, economic and social impacts the Leopold matrix. The results show a peasant production composed mainly of men (96%), of mestizo origin (91.6%), aged 41 to 60 years (55%); level of education in primary (56.5%) and baccalaureate (20.6%); They plant areas of 1.0 to 1.75 hectares (60.1%) and little technical assistance. Soil (47.3%) was impacted by accumulation of agrochemicals and water when contaminated (71.7%). Leopold's matrix considered the transformation of the territory around tutoring, soil loss, contamination of water bodies and burning of crop residues. In conclusion, maintaining the productivity of the Creole yam cultivar involves establishing the trade-off of the relationship between the planned solutions and the impacts on ecosystems in terms of environmental costs.

At present, the use of biofertilizers and protein plants in the nutrition of pastures and forage has increased. The investigation was carried out in the University Center of the municipality of Cumanayagua, county of Cienfuegos, Cuba with the objective of evaluating the response of Leucaena leucocephala (Lam.) De Wit to the inoculation of different arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) strains. The experiment was carried out in polyethylene bags. The experiment used a random blocks design with three replicates and the following treatments: #1. Soil (Control treatment, without inoculation and NPK application), #2. Soil + inoculation with the AMF strain F. mosseae/INCAM-2, #3. Soil + inoculation with the AMF strain G. cubense/INCAM-4) and #4. Soil + NPK fertilization at plant establishment application of NPK (25, 40 y 120 kg ha-1 de N, P2O5 y K20) + N at each cut at 70% of the initial dose. The inoculation with AMF was simultaneous for all treatments. A establishment cut and five successive cuts were performed, with 51.33 average days between them. The biomass production, the content of gross protein of L. leucocephala in each harvest and the cumulative total, as well as mycorrhizal effectiveness, were quantified. L. leucocephala positively responded to F. mosseae/INCAM-2 inoculation. Biomass production for cut increased between 31,50 % (Treatment #2) y 19,40 % (Treatment #3) with respect to control treatment. Inoculation with F. mosseae/INCAM-2 showed higher mycorrhizal effectiveness. The highest value in gross protein was obtained in the variant with mineral fertilization and the inoculated variants overcame the control treatment, with better performance than treatment # 2 ( Soil+ Funneliformis mosseae/INCAM-2).

The Jibacoa region is a rice producing region generating high amounts of husk, used as an alternative for fertilizer. The convenience of tube technology for seedling production using rice husk combined with soil, as a substrate, is an option to produce coffee seedlings in the region. The experiment was carried out in the nursery of the Jibacoa Agroforestry Experimental Station, Villa Clara province, Cuba, located at 22°.01'N and 79°.58'W, in the period between November 2019 and June 2020. The effect of different proportions of burned rice husks (BRH)., soil and different Multicote® doses on the development of coffee seedlings established in tubes as containers was evaluated. A factorial completely randomized experimental design was used with 26 treatments. Seven months after the establishment, the variables height, stem diameter, number of paired leaves, leaf area and total dry mass were evaluated in 20 plants per treatment: The treatment consisting of 25% BRH + 75% soil + 3 g of Multicote® reported the highest mean values of height, stem diameter and number of leaves of seedlings of Coffea arabica L Var."Island 6_14.

Color is one of the main characteristics that allows to establish the quality of food. Technically, it is defined as a mental response to the stimulus that a visible radiation produces in the retina that is transmitted to the brain by the optic nerve, so it is closely related to the nervous system and thus, this attribute in food marks the preference of an individual. Given its importance, different systems have been developed to objectively measure color in food, evaluating the changes obtained in a product due to processing and storage, determining, among other things, its shelf life. Considering the above, this review is presented with the objective of recognizing the main methods for determining color of food, and its applications in the food industry.

There is a range of processed foods that satisfy hunger, but do not nourish, causing a progressive decline in human health; however, bread enriched with micronutrients has a beneficial effect on health, contributing to the functioning of the organism. The objective of this research was to develop a functional bakery product based on wheat and butternut squash flours from two cultivars; An experimental work with six T0 treatments was proposed: 100% wheat flour (WF) – 0% butternut squash flour (BSF); T1: 80% WF – 20% BSF; T2: 85% WF – 15% BSF; T3: 90% WF – 10% BSF; T4: 95% WF – 5% BSF; T5: 97% WF – 3% BSF and three repetitions per treatment, under a completely randomized design, the chemical, physical and organoleptic properties were evaluated in each treatment by cultivating; for sensory testing, the sensory test was performed. The results indicated that all the treatments have a protein content between 9.59 - 9.78% and total carotenoids between 18.60 - 26.44 µg./g. on a dry basis; the sensory test Friedman established that the best treatment using flour from the Abanico 75 cultivar was T3 for flavor and color characteristics, and T4 for palatability, and when using flour from the Dorado cultivar for the same characteristics, the best treatment was T3 with 10% of butternut squash flour.

Biological control is a potential and sustainable option to deal with crop production and yield problems affected by insects or pathogenic microorganisms. In vanilla crop, obtaining the natural scent present in its fruits is limited, mainly by diseases that affect commercial crops. The main disease of vanilla crop is root and stem rot (RSR), caused by F. oxysporum f. sp. radicis-vanillae and F. oxysporum f. sp. vanillae. We found that the use of endophytic fungi (EF) isolated from healthy or asymptomatic plants requires systematic research for the selection of the most effective species to control pathogens, particularly in this crop. Additionally, there is no evidence reported with respect to this topic, in spite of, the use of these microorganisms is a natural alternative in other crops, compared to the use of agrochemicals used in traditional agriculture. This review addresses the perspective, and raises the need for research on the potential use of endophytic fungi as biological control agents of fungal pathogens in cultivated plants, emphasizing the relationship Endophytic fungi-Vanilla-pathogenic Fusarium.

The development and production of bananas are influenced by spatio-temporal edaphoclimatic conditions, which explains in a certain way the heterogeneous response that occurs on the farms, highlighting the need to generate information regarding the morphological characteristics of fruit for taking corrective actions that entail to increased productivity. The objective of this research was to carry out an analysis of production, taking into account the quantifiable variables through bunches profiling. 98,956 bunches recorded in a period of 108 weeks between 2021 and 2022 were analyzed in ten farms of two banana groups in Urabá-Antioquia, in the municipalities of Turbo, Apartadó and Carepa. Variables such as: cluster age, cluster weight, number of hands, basal-apical calibration, basal-apical length, removal of fingers and hands in the field. The R 4.2.1 software was used, with which a Spearman correlation, analysis of variance (ANOVA) was obtained and for comparison of means, a Kruskal post-hoc was done. Statistical differences were identified (p-value<2.2e-16) and the highest correlations were between age-weight (0.24), age-basal calibration (0.23) and number of hands-weight (0.45). These results indicate that harvest profiling is a practical and agile method that allows quantifying morphological variables of the bunches, making yield projections and adjusting agronomic management depending on the specifications of the marketer.