Eco-Friendly Biocontrol of Moniliasis in Ecuadorian Cocoa Using Biplot Techniques

Cocoa is the main crop in Ecuador's agricultural sector and is the most important to the country's economy. This crop is mainly threatened by moniliasis caused by Moniliophthora roreri and Moniliophthora perniciosa. Monialisis is a disease that causes the watery rot of cocoa beans, causing serious yield losses at crop harvest and great economic losses. In this research, we used 50 Trichoderma spp. cultivated in two culture media, PDA and MEA, to demonstrate mycelial growth and antagonistic capacity against two cacao-crop pathogens: M. roreri and M. perniciosa. Multivariate methods, namely a PCA biplot and a GGE biplot, indicated that four strains of Trichoderma spp. (17, 33, 42 and 44) cultivated on the PDA medium had the highest mycelial characteristic values and antagonistic capacities against Moniliophthora perniciosa. The experimental test showed that the lowest incidence of moniliasis and highest yield of cocoa occurred when using the treatments based on the Trichoderma spp. The results obtained in this study allow the use of strain 42 to control moniliasis in cocoa, avoiding economic losses.