Urgent talks on army-worm outbreak threat
Pest advancing in southern Africa
AN EMERGENCY meeting is to be held this month to look at responses to a threat to southern Africa from an advancing pest.
This was announced by the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), which warned a suspected outbreak of army worms had spread to Namibia and Mozambique and was causing “considerable crop damage”.
Yesterday the FAO said an emergency meeting would be held in Harare from February 14 to 16 to shape co-ordinated responses to the army worm and other potential hazards such as the spread of avian flu which has been detected in other African regions.
Suspected army-worm outbreaks have erupted in Zambia, Zimbabwe, Malawi and South Africa.
They follow a crippling El Nino-triggered drought which scorched much of the region last year, hitting crop production and leaving millions in need of food aid.
Countries with confirmed outbreaks can face import bans on agricultural products because the army worm is classified as a quarantine pest.
The pest can also cause extensive damage to crops and has a preference for maize, the regional staple.
In Malawi, where 6.5 million people, more than a third of the population, are dependent on food aid until the harvest next month, the infestation has spread to all 28 districts in the country, threatening the staple maize crop.
The army worm moths lay eggs in maize plants and the caterpillars have also been known to march en masse across the landscape – hence the name. They have been known to destroy 90% of the crop in fields they infest.
Tests are being conducted in South Africa to confir m if the species is the autumn army worm, an invasive Central American species that is harder to detect and eradicate than its African counterpart.
The national agriculture ministry is registering pesticides for use against the autumn army worm in the event that tests confirm its presence in the country’s maize belt. – Reuters