Worm outbreak spills into Zambezi
VARIOUS parts of the Zambezi region have now also been overrun by the worm infestation which has sown devastation across the northern parts, from Omusati to Kavango East, since late last year.
Mathews Mushabati, the chief agricultural extension officer in the region, confirmed the widespread outbreak to The Namibian yesterday, but said that “the situation is manageable”.
Although Mushabati said the areas affected most are Masokotwani, Lake Muyako, Kanono, Linyanti, Chinchimani and Kongola, the full extent of the damage can only be known today after a visit to some of the affected farms.
In the meantime, the agriculture ministry has identified three types of worm infestations causing damage to crops across the north, with two of them causing serious devastation, according to an entomological investigation team.
The discovery comes after the ministry last week said it could not identify the types of pests that have invaded the Omusati, Ohangwena, Kavango East and West, as well as Zambezi regions.
Chief agronomist at the Agricultural Business Development Agency, Julia Nambili, last week told The Namibian that the worms have mostly targeted maize crops, the destruction of which would result in combined losses of more than N$23 million at two leading Green Scheme projects. Nambili yesterday said she could not comment on the current situation at the farms as she is still to visit them this week.
The Namibian last week reported that the Musese Green Scheme project in Kavango West could lose N$18 million, while Etunda in Omusati was likely to lose N$5 million due to the infestation.
The two Green Schemes have a combined 2 200 hectares under cultivation.
The regional agriculture office in the Zambezi says it has identified all three types of worms after complaints from farmers who claimed their crops were being ravaged by worms.
The permanent secretary in the agriculture ministry, Percy Misika, said in a statement yesterday that after the team was deployed to the affected areas to carry out detailed inspections on the damage and to identify the types of pests, three types of caterpillars were discovered: the Fall armyworms, bollworms, as well as the maize stalk borer.
“Serious damage was observed as a result of the Fall armyworm infestation, which concentrate on attacking and feeding on the foliage part of the plant, while the bollworms cause damage on leaves and to the developing cobs at the milk stage,” explained Misika.
He said stalk borers were common, but did not cause serious damage, unlike armyworms and bollworms.
“These caterpillars are likely to occur during every rainy season if the plant materials with unhatched eggs are not properly destroyed, or by migrating from other areas,” he explained.
Misika advised farmers to dig deep trenches around their fields to stop pests from moving in or out of their surroundings. “In case of low pest populations and farmers with relatively small plots, the hand-picking of caterpillars is advised,” he said.
He added that the Plant Health Division and the regional extension offices were supplying pesticides, spray machines and equipment to control the spread of the pests in the affected fields.
An investor at the Musese project which has been hit by Fall armyworm, Tulio Parreira, said that he would only know after a few days if the poison he applied to the field was effective, especially on the potato plants.
He, however, said they would start replanting by the end of February.
Parreira said trenches would only be effective with armyworms which crawl to other fields, and not with bollworms, which are moth larvae hatched on plants.
The farm manager at the Etunda Green Scheme project, Albertus Viljoen, said that he had only observed a slight diminishing in the intensity of the bollworm infestation at the project.
“The pesticides are starting to work, but we are not yet out of danger. The situation is not worse, but we have not completely contained the outbreak either,” he said.
Viljoen said farmers at Etunda would consider replanting lost crops at the end of February.
Source: http://www.namibian.com.na/50604/re...stry-finally-identifies-three-different-pests
