The strategy of optimal control for managing sugarcane shoot borer larvae

Abstract

Pests and plant diseases pose significant challenges to Indonesia's agricultural development of sugar cane. The fall in national sugar productivity can be attributed, in part, to the presence of sugar cane shoot borer bugs. Managing sugar cane shoot borer pests is a crucial aspect of agriculture. The objective of this scientific study is to ascertain the optimal approach for the introduction of parasitoid larvae of sugarcane shoot borer pests. This will be done by looking at the Lotka-Volterra equation's stability and finding the best way to control it. This is a mathematical model used to show how biological control systems work. Specifically, the study focuses on the biological control of sugarcane shoot borer pests using their parasitic larvae, the Diatraeophaga striatalis Towns. The researchers opted for the qualitative descriptive approach, employing analytical tools derived from Miles and Huberman's four-stage framework. The equilibrium point and optimal control analyses show that the model presents various outcomes with distinct methods. These findings will be further examined in the subsequent sections of this paper.