Posted on April, 27, 2017 at 09:28 am
By Michael J. Ssali
The fall armyworm is present in Uganda and it is destroying maize, sorghum and other food crops as well as some fodder grass species. We have seen footages on TV screens of the minister of Agriculture Vincent Ssempijja and other officials handing over tonnes of insecticides to various stakeholders in the agriculture sector to fight the new pest reported to have arrived in Africa only last year from the Americas.
About Shs10b has been set aside by the government to prevent the spread of the fall armyworm. But, it will take a lot of time and effort to teach farmers how to effectively combat the pest, which may involve the use of biological control methods such as digging trenches around the farm, getting natural predators like birds to eat the worms, and burning the infested crops as David Phiri of the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has disclosed.
The fall armyworm is a fairly large insect which can be seen with the naked eye and so it is easy to associate with the damage it causes when entire crop fields are wiped out.
Nearly everywhere we hear voices, including those of religious leaders calling upon government to take immediate measures to control the pest.
Yet for more than a decade, we have had perhaps more dangerous tiny pests that have reduced the production of food crops such as bananas, cassava, and sweet potatoes with little concern from the same people about the delay by Parliament to pass the Biotechnology and Bio-safety Bill.
With the passing of the Bill into law, farmers can begin to grow bananas, cassava and potatoes that are protected against the disastrous microscopic pests which have no chemical cure.
There is reported acute food shortage in Teso sub-region mainly due to drought. In his Easter message Archbishop Cyprian Lwanga lamented the high level of food insecurity in the country. Why not pass the Biotechnology and Bio-science Bill first and then deal with the caterpillars?
Source: Daily Monitor