This was in response to an – as yet unconfirmed – report that the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) would be convening a summit of Southern African governments in Johannesburg in February, to address the armyworm problem.
Farmer’s Weekly’s repeated attempts to obtain confirmation from the UN FAO in South Africa about the summit have thus far been unsuccessful, however, Agri SA has said that the point of departure of such a summit should be to combat migratory pests where they originate from, in order to prevent them from spreading.
A highly destructive and mobile crop pest, armyworm has already been confirmed in Zambia and Zimbabwe.
According to Agri SA’s director of natural resources, Nic Opperman, an outbreak of larvae that had damaged maize crops in Limpopo and North Wes was strongly suspected to be armyworm, but this was still to be confirmed.
“Agri SA would be in favour of an effective governance structure between SA and its neighbouring countries to serve as an early warning platform [for insect pests], but also to jointly collaborate on financing and combatting strategies,” Opperman said.
He added that it was doubtful that, at present, African governments were suitably equipped to tackle migratory pests proactively, hence the need for collaborative efforts among these governments to effectively deal with the challenge in the future.
“The [SA] Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries should declare armyworms as an official migratory pest – similarly to quelea, locusts, and black flies – to make the necessary control resources available.”
The Southern African Confederation of Agricultural Unions told Farmer’s Weekly that, due to other commitments, it was unable to provide its comments on the rumoured armyworm summit at present.
