Watch: Agriculture mobilising resources to fight fall army worm in 7 provinces – Mozambique

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Watch: Agriculture mobilising resources to fight fall army worm in 7 provinces – Mozambique

1:12 CAT | 18 Jan 2018

File

Mozambique’s Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security is mobilising resources to control the Fall Army Worm, which is affecting large areas of the country.

The plague is recent in Mozambique, TVM reports, and has been confirmed in seven provinces of the country. If not controlled, it could cause producers huge economic losses.

27,000 hectares of corn in Inhambane

According to Rádio Moçambique, about 27,000 hectares of corn in Inhambane are at risk, mainly in Inharrime and Vilankulo districts.

In the Pambarra region, the corn hopper caterpillar reduced one association’s yield to thirty-one of its fifty hectares.

“We expected each hectare to yield three to four tons, but this pest reduced that to one-and-a-half tons per hectare, at most,” Adriano Machava, president of the Pambara Agricultural Association Fight against Poverty in Vilankulo district complained.

Across Inhambane province alone, an estimated 27,000 hectares are affected, but agriculture authority interventions are bringing the pest under control.

A spokesman for the provincial directorate of Agriculture and Food Security in Inhambane said that the sector was worried by the outbreak of the plague and technicians were on the ground to help farmers.

“At this time, due to the effects of the pest, we are recommending that producers start applying preventive treatment,” Francisco Feijão said.