SOUTHERN AFRICA MAY FACE FOOD DEFICITS

BULAWAYO — Southern Africa, which recorded bumper crop harvests last season, could face food deficits following prolonged dry spells and the march of the fall army worm, a senior Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) official has said.

Last week, the Eastern Cape department of rural development and agrarian reform confirmed the presence of fall armyworm in the province.

“The tell-tale signs are not good for this cropping season with the combination of delayed rains and outbreaks of the fall armyworm,” David Phiri, FAO’s sub-regional co-ordinator for Southern Africa, said in a phone interview.

“The biggest problem this year is less, overall, the fall armyworm than it is the sporadic rainfall patterns that are emerging. A combination makes the situation worse.”

Successive droughts hitting Southern Africa in 2015-16 led to failed maize harvests across the region.

The El Niño-induced floods in 2016 washed away most crops, destroyed homes and livestock, forcing many countries to declare a state of disaster.

A regional bumper maize harvest in the last season could, in the interim, ensure food security, but another drought year could mean another food crisis.

The fall armyworm, a ravenous pest which has already destroyed thousands of hectares of maize crop across the region, was first detected in Western and Central Africa in 2016. To date it has spread to more than 28 countries on the continent.

While favouring maize, the worm can also feed on more than 80 other plant species, including millet, sugarcane, rice, sorghum, vegetables and cotton, making control a difficult task, according to the FAO.

-Business Day