Luis Bota

Luis Bota, is the head of the National Fruit Fly Lab in Chimoio (Mozambique), and is participating in one of the PhD programs of DISPEST_2 in collaboration with the Eduardo Mondlane University (EMU, Maputo, Mozambique) under the supervision of Dr. Laura Canhanga and Prof. Domingos Cugala.

Luis has been directly involved in previous RAAC projects (AGROVEG, DISPEST, RAAC 2019-2023) and masters the identification of fruit fly agricultural pests. His specific expertise lies in the distribution and pest management of the melon fly, Zeugodacus cucurbitae and of the oriental fly, Bactrocera dorsalis, two main target species of DISPEST_2.

After participating in the DISPEST training on fruit flies in 2022 ("training the trainers"), he contributed to the training course 2023, by presenting seminars to African National Plant Protection Officers (NPPOs) and representatives of the private horticultural sector. Luis co-authored scientific publications on fruit flies in international journals with impact factor and is currently modelling the distribution of the melon fly in Mozambique and South East Africa.

Updates about this research are available here