Be wary of armyworm, farmers told

FARMERS have been warned to be on the lookout for the deadly fall armyworm pest, which is likely to resurface this season.

Agriculture, Mechanisation and Irrigation Development Minister Dr Joseph Made said victory against fall armyworm relied on the ability to detect the pest early.

He said farmers were the best insurance for the $487 million invested in the Presidential Well Wishers Presidential Agriculture Inputs Scheme and should check for the deadly pests on a daily basis.

The fall army worm, which is believed to hibernate underground, surfaces when new plants start developing.

“I want to appeal to farmers and to direct all our extension workers to be on full alert against fall army worm,” he said. “We are likely also to face problems of normal African armyworm, locusts, maize stalk borer and quelia birds due to our expansion in small grain production.”

Dr Made said scouting for the pests was the only immediate solution to win the war.

“The first line of defence is for every farmer to know how to iden- tify these pests at early stages of invasion,” he said.

“Extension workers must work round the clock, while farmers must continue receiving training or else our efforts will not yield the anticipated results if pests such as the fall armyworm hit us again.”

Dr Made urged farmers to guard against people, who claimed to be agricultural experts who had been giving out controversial statements about the fall army worm.

“The fall armyworm is a genuine problem and we should not pretend about it,” he said. “It’s surprising that some self-styled agriculture specialists are giving these farmers “poison” under the guise of giving them advice.”

Dr Made said he would be issuing periodic statements regarding the state of affairs in the sector.

“If farmers experiment with any kind of chemicals, these pests will develop resistance, hence developing a serious problem for us,” he said.

Dr Made said Government and the Food and Agriculture Organisation signed a memorandum of understanding in which the latter will avail knapsack sprayers to benefit small holder farmers.