CAEI is innovation
Technology at CAEI
Technology plays an important role in CAEI’s production processes. In addition to the latest machinery and equipment, our company has additional resources that complement industrial procedures, including computerized management systems, biometric platforms, and physicochemical, microbiological and entomological laboratories.
Biosalc y Syslog
To ensure efficiency and productivity in the use of machinery and employee performance, CAEI uses Biosalc, a logistics solutions system designed for the agro-industrial sector, which optimizes agricultural planning, execution and control activities. Similarly, to improve the scheduling of planting and harvesting, it uses the GPS Syslog system, a tool that monitors very large cultivation areas.
Field worker biometric data
Before the harvest starts, the data of our field workers is recorded in a biometric platform that allows us to keep a daily record of the tons of sugarcane that each one of them cuts during the season. This information is synchronized with the central payroll system of the Biosalc program. At the time of payment, the employee’s fingerprints are verified, and payment is made according to his or her production. Identity theft is impossible with this platform. In addition, since the cut data is recorded, the employee can be paid, even if he/she has lost his/her payment ticket.
The ‘Cotesia flavipes’ wasp and biological pest control
The stem borer (Diatraea saccharalis) is the main sugarcane pest in the Dominican Republic. It significantly affects juice quality. Other important pests include the budworm (Spodoptera frugiperda), the false measurer (Mocis sp.) and the sugarcane leafhopper (Calisto pulchella). These pests affect sugarcane foliage, causing damage that results in significant reductions in crop production.
To control these pests, CAEI has implemented the production of natural enemies (biological control) that, when released or applied in the areas with the highest pest infestation rates, reduce their populations to levels that minimize economic damage.
The production of natural enemies is carried out in the Biological Control laboratory located at the company. These biological agents are not invasive, for they are found naturally in sugarcane plantations, where we collect broodstock to initiate production cycles under artificial conditions of the parasitoid Tetrastichus howardi (controls the stem borer and other Lepidoptera) and the nematode Heterorhabditis bacteriophora (controls soil insects).
The production and use of natural enemies for pest control in CAEI’s sugarcane plantations has allowed them to maintain excellent phytosanitary conditions. It has also reduced the use of chemical insecticides.
In 2001, CAEI put into operation a modern laboratory for the production of biological media, and Cotesia flavipes was the first biological control to be produced. With this species we were able to reduce the infestation rate of the sugarcane borer Diatraea Saccaralis.
In 2019 we revolutionized the process by introducing the parasitoid Tetrastichus howardi as a biological control. To reproduce this small wasp, there is no need to use Diatraea Sccharalis as a host, for Galleria mellonella (honey worm) can be used as an alternative. This change represented a big leap for the process, since this host reproduces more easily and has lower costs.
