Tests confirm fall armyworm plague

SAMPLES collected to test for fall armyworm have returned positive, the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries confirmed this week. An official said authorities now had to deal with this threat to South Africa’s food security.

Department spokeswoman Bomikazi Molapo said the Agricultural Research Council’s Plant Protection Research Institute had reported that fall armyworm was positively identified from samples collected in Limpopo.

“The samples were jointly collected by scientists from the ARC Grain Institute and NorthWest University. These were caterpillars that had to pupate and emerge as moths before a positive identification could be done,” she said.

Fall armyworm has wreaked havoc in parts of Southern Africa and been positively identified in Zambia, Zimbabwe, Malawi and Namibia.

Zimbabwe’s agriculture minister, Joseph Made, said that with good rain the country had managed to increase land under tillage, but the fall armyworm and lack of fertilisers were “the biggest risks” farmers faced.

Fall armyworm is indigenous to South America and is in the SADC region for the first time, after being detected in Nigeria last year.

The pest’s presence in South Africa has stoked fear of yet another lean season for the SADC region as South Africa is the region’s biggest maize producer, contributing 42% of the region’s annual output of 30million tons.

Even though fall armyworm is now in South Africa for the first time, the department said the South African Emergency Plant Pest Response Plan was already in action.

“Actions implemented depend on the pest, the extent of the spread and extent of the damage. Now that there is a positive identification, the department will continue with assessment of spread and damage, awareness actions to provide farmers with accurate technical information and control options,” Molapo said.

“Pheromone traps will be imported . . . to determine the exact extent of the spread and the specific strain of fall armyworm present in South Africa. Diagnostic support has been increased to deal the bulk of sample identification.”

Provincial agriculture departments and farmers would assess damage on farms, determine other hosts affected and also undertake road shows to raise public awareness of the pest.

Experts say fall armyworm is resistant to traditional pesticides — chemicals can be used successfully only at the pest’s larval development stage.

The department would be getting in touch with chemical suppliers this week about supplies of a pesticide to combat the spread of fall armyworm, Molapo said.

“A process of emergency registration of agricultural chemicals has been initiated for urgent registration. Chemical suppliers are therefore encouraged to apply for emergency registration of agricultural chemicals to be used on maize and other host plants,” Molapo said.

The rest of the region will be keenly following South Africa’s efforts to contain the fall army-

Emergency registration of agricultural chemicals has been initiated

worm outbreak. There is still no regional response to the pest.

Wandile Sihlobo, head of the economic and agribusiness intelligence unit at the Agriculture Business Chamber said it was important to source pesticide supplies and distribute these to small-scale farmers as well as large-scale commercial farmers who were battling to combat the pest.

Sihlobo sympathised with the small-scale farmers who were struggling with the twin threats of fall armyworm and drought to their crops.

“Unlike the larger commercial farmers, they don’t enjoy economies of scale, which would see them buy pesticides and spray it on their farms,” Sihlobo said.