Tuesday, March 19, 2024

Army worms invades thousands of hectares in Kabwe

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Army worms
Army worms

The army worms have destroyed 6,500 hectares of maize fields in Kabwe from the time they appeared last week.

Kabwe District Commissioner Patrick Chishala confirmed to ZANIS in kabwe today saying this has forced him to come up with a task force committee consisting of officers from agriculture, disaster unit and others to help the district combat the spreading of the pests.

Mr Chishala described the situation as a disaster saying some farmers have lost completely all the maize they planted while some have had their grazing pastures eaten up by the army worms which are still terrorizing farmers.

He said it was unfortunate that farmers have lost seed, fertilizer and labour since some of them had nothing to do because they have no more money to buy more seed to replant their fields.

The District Commissioner said there is need to subsidise the most affected farmers to enable them grow some maize for food security.

He however appealed to farmers not to relent but to go ahead planting maize saying there was still sometime for maize production.

Mr Chishala assured the farmers that government was doing everything possible to control the situation.

And a female farmer, Agnes Kale of Mpima area in Kabwe said she was so devastated following the loss of 8 hectares of maize out of the 10 she planted due to the army worms attack on her field.

Ms Kale appealed to government to quickly assist her come out of the problem since she was a widow who has been struggling to make ends meet for about 12 years now.

Another farmer, Ken Muleya of the same area also lamented the loss of his entire one hectare of maize that was eaten up by the worms.

Mr Muleya explained that despite efforts to spray them with pesticide, the worms continued to destroy his maize field.

ZANIS

17 COMMENTS

  1. I hope the government finds a quick solutions to this.I just watched a documentary baout how they spread,multiply,difficulties in control en how they destroyed crops worth milions of dollars in one part of the united states.

  2. Any prior research on these pests? I have good reason these worms (caterpillars) are just a stage in the life cycle of a moth or butterfly but is it known? Don’t just sprat with insecticide but fund research with the emergency fund.

  3. Kabwe my HOMELAND!! I hope these army worms are contained in the shortest possible time before much harm is done to the crops!

  4. These are PF worms.WE have never had such before.Too bad all the money needs to go to by elections.Chipimo was right when he said he forsaw 10 by elections costing more than sums allocated to health, food security etc

  5. n mid-April 1999, an army worm infestation started in southern Ethiopia, spreading into the north the following month and into the Jubba valley of Somalia in early May. Similar outbreaks affected the Rift Valley Province of Kenya and parts of Uganda at the same time. While Ethiopian officials had stocks of pesticides to treat 350,000 hectares of affected land, neither Kenyan or Ugandan officials had sufficient supplies to combat the insect and there was no central government to respond to the emergency in Somalia.
    STAR radio in Liberia reported in January 2009 that Zota District in Bong County had been invaded by army worms, which had consumed vegetation and polluted creeks and running water] They are moving to Guinea and Sierra Leone. On 28 January 2009, the President of Libe

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