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Agri Hour

Government still not convinced to declare African armyworm a national pest

───   CHRISTAL-LIZE MULLER 07:00 Fri, 21 Feb 2020

Government still not convinced to declare African armyworm a national pest | News Article
African armyworm

The Department of Agriculture and Rural Development in the Free State has confirmed an African armyworm outbreak in the Soutpan area near Bloemfontein.


The farm involved is currently being assessed and neighbouring farms will also be visited to establish if the outbreak has spread. Dr Roger Price, research team manager at the Agricultural Research Council, ARC, says these outbreaks cause widespread damage to grasslands and are closely related to the Fall armyworm although it targets grasslands. OFM News' Christal-Lize Muller spoke to him about these two worm species...


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He says the Fall armyworm comes from the central part of South America and is an invasive pest on maize and sorghum in South Africa. It is a new pest of economic importance locally. In addition, the African armyworm comes from the grassland areas up in Tanzania and Malawi. South Africa is occasionally invaded by the African armyworm when the moth adults fly down on the winds this time of the year. (February, March and April.) Outbreaks cause widespread damage to grasslands. The African armyworm marches along the grounds and is very different from the Fall armyworm, which is found inside the whirl of the maize plant.

He says the ARC wants the African armyworm to be legislated to be a national pest, but because outbreaks are only sporadic, the government says they can't control it using government funds. However, when it does hit grazing it causes massive damage. "I have seen huge areas in the Northern Cape and Free State damaged by African armyworm."

Outbreaks are controlled by spraying pesticides over large areas and that makes it almost impossible to do and it is an uneconomic process.

Price says the great danger is when the African armyworm, in Afrikaans known as the “kommandowurm”,  gets into Kikuyu grass. Cattle then eat this grass with its high cyanide levels induced by the African armyworm. This is poisonous to cattle and may lead to deaths.

That was Dr Roger Price, research team manager, of the Agriculture Research Council (ARC) only on Before Dawn.


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