Assessing the Profitability of Avocado Production in South Florida in the Presence of Laurel Wilt

Mauricio Mosquera,Edward A Evans,Randy Ploetz

doi:10.4236/tel.2015.52040

Abstract

Laurel wilt (LW) is a lethal disease of trees in the Lauraceae plant family, including the economic significant commercial crop avocado, Persea americana. To date, an estimated one-half billion native trees have been destroyed by the disease in the southeastern United States, including the loss of significant and diverse taxa in the Everglades. In the US state of Florida, laurel wilt has spread rapidly throughout the South Florida commercial avocado production area. Since its arrival in 2011, LW has been responsible for the death of about 7000 trees or 1% of the production area. Given the destructive nature of this disease, there are major concerns over the future of the Florida avocado industry. Cost-effective management of LW remains an elusive goal, and current recommendations rely heavily on the early detection and destruction of affected trees (sanitation) in an effort to slow the spread of the disease. An empirical economic model is used to determine when all trees in an orchard affected by LW would need to be destroyed due to negative net returns.

Highlights

Laurel wilt (LW) has emerged as a lethal threat to plants in the Lauraceae plant family in the southeastern Unit-How to cite this paper: Mosquera, M., Evans, E.A. and Ploetz, R. (2015) Assessing the Profitability of Avocado Production in South Florida in the Presence of Laurel Wilt
LW is caused by the fungus Raffaelea lauricola, which has an invasive ambrosia beetle vector, Xyleborus glabratus
With one of the goals of the present research being to develop a model with which profitability could be assessed in the presence of LW, the model assumes that an avocado orchard is an asset with a useful lifetime and a stream of net benefits during that time

Summary

Introduction

Laurel wilt (LW) has emerged as a lethal threat to plants in the Lauraceae plant family in the southeastern Unit-. (2015) Assessing the Profitability of Avocado Production in South Florida in the Presence of Laurel Wilt. With the disease affecting commercial production, guidelines are needed to assess net revenues using different LW management scenarios. A framework is required to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of different LW management strategies which could affect the spread rates. Preliminary work in the latter area indicates that considerable progress is needed before efficacious measures become economically viable [6]. The approach of Salifu et al [7] was used to address how LW impacts profitability by considering different disease spread rates and incidences, the age of plantings when they were first affected by the disease, and treatment costs. Simulation techniques were used to determine when a grove affected by LW would cease to be profitable with and without management

Potential Economic Impact of LW on Commercial Avocado

Model Parameters

Model Development

Model Scenarios

Results and Discussions