The Democratic Alliance (DA) has today written to KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) Agriculture MEC, Bongiwe Sithole-Moloi (view here) to request her Department’s urgent intervention in stopping the further spread of Fall armyworm in the northern parts of the province.
Fall armyworm, which is native to tropical and sub-tropical areas of the America’s is an invasive species in Africa. It has already spread rapidly across Southern Africa and has been the cause of hundreds of millions of Rands worth of damage. Experts have also indicated that climate change has led to perfect conditions for the spread of the worm.
Called armyworm due to the fact that in its larval stage individuals gather in huge masses, the species is known for its ability to destroy as many as 80 different crop species in short time frames. In KZN, the armyworm poses a risk to maize, vegetable crops and sugarcane production amongst others.
The seriousness of a Fall armyworm plague here in our province cannot be under-estimated. Our farmers are already under massive strain due to persistent drought conditions in some areas, increasing input costs, policy uncertainty and market instability. Uncontrolled, the spread of the worm will have a devastating effect, threatening food security and severely damaging the local economy.
The DA in KZN has repeatedly raised the need for better mechanisms to respond to biological threats to the agricultural sector. Despite this, there have been no discussions tabled at portfolio committee level when it comes to biosecurity threats. Nor have we received any responses from the MEC on preventative suggestions that we have made.
Today, the DA has asked the MEC to ensure that her Department urgently reach out and offer assistance to farmers in stopping the further spread of the insect and the damage that it causes. We have appealed to the MEC to support farmers by directly subsidising preventative measures such as the use of responsible pesticides, pheromone lures and the use of natural enemies. In addition, we have requested that the MEC provide a full report on the spread of the worm at the next Agriculture portfolio committee meeting on the 31st January.
The DA will continue to raise the risk of not having proper response and preventative biosecurity measures in place in our province and expose weaknesses in this regard in the hope that the MEC and the ANC-led administration will take this issue more seriously. In the interim, we urge producers to contact the Department of Agriculture directly if they detect Fall armyworm on their crops.