Optimization of biological pest control of sugarcane borer

Ethanol is a good choice as a fuel and additive. The increase in world demand for ethanol will bring an increase of the sugarcane planted in Brazil. One of challenges of the improvements in the farming and harvesting of cane is the biological pest control. The aim of this paper is to apply methods from optimal control theory, and from the theory of dynamic systems to the mathematical modeling of biological pest control. The linear feedback control problem for nonlinear systems has been formulated in order to obtain the optimal pest control strategy only through the introduction of natural enemies. Numerical simulations for possible scenarios of biological pest control based on the Lotka-Volterra models are provided to show the effectiveness of this method.