Modelling the biological control of a coffee berry borer “hypothenemushampei” (ferrari) the use of integrated parasitoids

The study explores the biological control of Coffee Berry Borer using integrated parasitoids. A mathematical model is formulated by modifying a host-parasite Lotka-Voltera model to investigate the effect of parasitoids on Coffee Berry Borer. The model is found to have three equilibrium points: the trivial equilibrium point, the predator free equilibrium point and the interior equilibrium point. All the equilibrium points are found to be locally asymptotically stable under conditions. The numerical results reveal that, in the absence of parasitoids, the Coffee Berry borer populations grow logistically and eventually levels of at an asymptote. In the absence of Coffee Berry Borer populations, the parasitoid populations decrease exponentially. It is also found that, when the parameter values are varied in the given range, the parasitoid populations increase to a maximum value and eventually decrease as Coffee Berry Borer population decrease gradually. The results also show that, the phase curves of Coffee Berry Borer against parasitoids population intersect in a vertical straight line from the trivial equilibrium point to about 100 individuals of Coffee Berry Borer, and then separate and start to decrease gradually. This implies that there exists prey-predator behaviour between the two species. Thus, parasitoid population has effect on Coffee Berry Borer population, and under some conditions, parasitoids can effectively be used to eliminate coffee berry borer population.