Red Locusts eating maize in Nalubanda area of Mumbwa |
By Paul Shalala in Ndola
The breeding of Red Locusts and African
Migratory Locusts in Malawi, Tanzania, Mozambique and Zambia is likely to
affect food security in East and Southern Africa.
According to Wikipedia, red locusts are large nomadic grasshoppers which are mostly found in Sub-Saharan Africa while the African Migratory Locust is mainly found in Africa south of the Sahara Desert and its main breeding ground is along the Niger river in West Africa.
According to Wikipedia, red locusts are large nomadic grasshoppers which are mostly found in Sub-Saharan Africa while the African Migratory Locust is mainly found in Africa south of the Sahara Desert and its main breeding ground is along the Niger river in West Africa.
The two locusts are a huge threat to the region's food security and their spread across the four countries are likely to cause massive losses to farmers especially that their main target maize (corn) is the staple food for many people.
Already, Malawi has a food shortage and last
year, the southern African country imported 100,000 metric tones of maize from
Zambia. This maize deal was however marred with irregularities leading to investigations in both
countries.
The so-called 'maizegate' scandal led to the dismissal of the Malawian Agriculture
Minister George Chaponda last week.
Malawi imported the maize from Zambia and
an additional amount from Romania due to a food crisis in that country.
The two pests invading the region, Red Locusts and the African
Migratory Locusts, destroy every green vegetation in their route and they cover
hundreds of hectares on a daily basis when they are at the peak of their
invasion.
According to aerial survey results by the International
Red Locust Control Organization for Central and Southern Africa (IRLCO-CSA),
there is an upsurge of the two species of locusts in the region.
Mr Okhoba displaying a newly bought gadget for detecting pests |
“In Malawi, we have identified two breeding
areas, Mozambique has two breeding areas and in Zambia, the locusts are
breeding in three areas but only two are active,” said IRLCO-CSA Director Moses
Okhoba in an exclusive interview at the organisation’s headquarters in the
Zambian city of Ndola.
Mr Okhoba named the two active breeding
grounds as the Kafue flats and the Lukanga swamps, both in Zambia’s Central
Province.
He warns that if the locusts are not
controlled in the four countries, they can cause unimaginable damage to food
and possibly increase poverty.
Maize is grown along the rivers and streams
an the coming of the locusts has sent shivers among farmers who fear that the
pests will wipe their crop.
“The good part is that in the 22 day survey
we did with our officers on the ground and aerial survey, we found that the
locusts are at the hopper stage and they are immobile, meaning we can control
them. What we don’t need is for them to grow and start moving,” he added.
Within February, IRLCO-CSA officers
surveyed 240,000 hectares of land in Zambia and they found both Red Locusts and
African Migratory Locusts breeding.
During the survey, it was discovered that
76,000 hectares had been invaded by the locusts.
IRLCO-CSA officers spraying maize fields in the Kafue flats |
It asked for K10 million (US$1 million) to
fight the locusts but so far only Zambia has come forth with K2 million (US$200,000).
According to Mr Okhoba, other countrues are
expected to make their contributions in the coming weeks so that the IRLCO-ESA
can extend its prevention activities to other affected countries.
This past week, the organization dispatched
its helicopters to the Kafue and Lukanga flats in central Zambia for aerial
spraying.
3,600 hectares of land was sprayed to kill
the breeding locusts within four days.
This was despite the fact that the affected
area is partly in the Kafue National Park which has dense thickets which are
full of wild animals.
Environmental activists fear that the
aerial spraying can pose a significant danger on the environment as well as
living organisms, especially if it is not properly done.
“In as much as the red locust invasion of
maize field in the Kafue flats is indeed a regrettable occurrence, It is still
very important to question the quality of the aerial spraying process. We must understand that there is more to it than
just protecting maize from damage,” said Young Volunteers for the Environment
Executive Director Muyunda Akufuna in an interview.
He added that the impact of aerial spraying
is very difficult to control because wind can always dictate the direction of the
chemicals.
“This results into off-target effects on
plants, effects on humans, effects on aquatic organisms as well as effects on
terrestrial organisms. I wouldn’t say I’m against agricultural aerial spraying;
it’s just a matter of doing the application correctly, at the right levels and
during the right time of year,” said Mr Akufuna
About 10,000 hectares of maize field close
to the two affected areas would have been invaded by the locusts if they had
matured to levels were they would have started moving around.
An officer monitoring a helicopter during the spraying exercise |
Another large scale farmer Gracious
Hamatala said: “Red locust are the latest disaster for the people of Nalubanda area
in Mumbwa who are still battling with the fall army worms and stalk
borer which also came after the black beetle. The good vegetation has also come
with a lot of tick borne diseases and the farmers are losing their wealth.”
Mr Hamatala, who is also the Mumbwa
District Council Chairman, said he had been engaging farmers, the community and
agriculture extension officers over the matter.
He recently toured a number of farmers that
have already been destroyed by the locusts.
The large part of the locusts are still
breeding, prompting the IRLCO-ESA to send a small team of motorized officers to
spraying fields in Mumbwa, Itezhi-Tezhi and Namwala districts.
These officers have been spraying areas of
between 45 and 50 hectares a day.
And in the past days, over 450 hectares of
land near farmland has been sprayed, saving maize crops which are a lifeline
for many.
Mr Hamatala (center) checking on affected maize in Nalubanda |
Maize is Zambia’s staple food and the
decline in annual yields may affect the country further by increasing poverty
levels which are already high.
In December 2016, Zambia was hit by an
outbreak of the fall army worms and stalk borers which destroyed hundreds of
thousands of maize fields.
On 16 December 2016, this blogger broke the
story on army worms.
At the time, the International Red Locust
Control Organisation for Eastern and Southern Africa warned that 40% of
Zambia’s crop maybe destroyed if quick action was not taken to contain the
pests.
With this warning, the country’s food
security was at stake and Zambia’s President Edgar Lungu deployed the Zambia Air
Force, the Disaster Management and Mitigation Unit and the Ministry of
Livestock and Fisheries to supply chemicals to six of the 10 provinces affected
by the pests.
On January 6, the Ministry of Finance
released K30 million (US$3 million) for the fight against the fall army worms
which scientists suspect originated from the Americas and came to Africa
through trade.
The destruction by the fall army worms and
stoke borers was farmers to replant their maize and most of them replanted late
and they may have reduced yields when they harvest in April.
This invasion has since been contained.
The fall army worms also caused destruction in neighboring
countries such as Zimbabwe.
In 2013, Zambia had its first case of army
worms and thousands of hectares of maize were destroyed.
However, the species which caused damage in
2013 was the African Army Worm which is less destructive than this year’s pest
the Fall Army Worm.
Security testing is must. Everybody wants security at every level of his working. as explained above failures are happened but if we test time to time then it will improve. So it depend on us how much we are serious about this.
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