By Godfrey Olukya 6-4-2017
Several African countries have been attacked by army worms which is destroying food plants at an alarming rate.
Already the worms which is suspected to have originated from South America have destroyed plants worth billions of US dollars.
Although first reported in Nigeria in 2016, it has now spread to other countries including Togo, Ghana, Zambia, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Kenya, Rwanda, Democratic republic of Congo, Uganda and Tanzania
It is unfortunate that the worms have hit at time when most of the African countries hare recovering from a drought which has affected then for the last 2 seasons.
According to experts, the fall army worm is a polyphagous in nature and feeds on more than 80 plant species in the categories of cereals. legumes, and pasture grasses.
”Across several African countries the fall army worm has damaged many gardens of maize, wheat, rice, sorghum, sugarcane, millet, pasture grass and other plants. In some countries it is being contained but in others the situation is appalling.” said Andrew Emenike, an international agriculture consultant based in Nigeria.
Zambia and Kenya have set aside 3,000,000 US dollars and 1,000,000 US dollars respectively to mitigate the army warm invasion.
Other countries are also reportedly coming up with strategies to fight the army worm.
END
