Posted on April, 28, 2017 at 10:20 am
Fall army worms have wreaked havoc in 13 counties where up to 15, 000 hectares of maize and other crops have been lost with indications the moth will attack more farms in the country.
Experts said yesterday the worms breed fast and are capable of migrating 100 kilometres a day and raised the red flag of a prolonged famine.
The experts, attending a meeting convened by the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) in Nairobi to discuss the pest’s infestation in southern Africa in particular, called for robust monitoring and rapid response to attacks.
Rapid action
“Attacks call for rapid action in order to achieve quick focused results,” said FAO-Kenya Representative, Gabriel Rugalema at a Nairobi hotel.
To counter the attack, the Government is seeking Sh320 million to scale up measures to avert further destruction of crops. Initially, Sh100 million had been budgeted for the exercise.
The Agriculture ministry said yesterday the money will support smallholder farmers access pesticides that have active ingredient that can effectively tackle the worms’ larvae.
“We have requested Treasury for an additional allocation of Sh320 million because the invasion is bigger than initially thought,” said Clement Muyesu, the Assistant Director of Agriculture.
Among counties that have been invaded include Trans Nzoia, Uasin Gishu, Kwale, Taita Taveta, Nakuru, Busia, Bungoma with the pests mainly attacking maize. In Kenya, 1.5 million hectares is under maize crop.
Confirmed outbreaks
“We need to put in place effective surveillance systems and respond in time to confirmed outbreaks”, said Rugalema.
It emerged in the meeting that the fall army worm could have been in the region for a longer time than known due to failure by farmers to identify the pest, thus giving it time to multiply.
“We cannot be certain about the first outbreak of the infestation because initially, some farmers could not distinguish the moth from other pests such as the maize stem borer and the African armyworm”, said Peter Chinwada from the University of Zimbabwe.
The technical experts called for adoption of an Integrated Pest Management (IPM) approach, which they said is an effective and environmentally sensitive method to pest management.
Among the IPM approaches proposed were the use of natural predators, biological pesticides and judicious pesticide application.
Source: MediaMax Network