A Deputy Minister of Food and Agriculture in charge of Annual Crops, Dr. Sagre Bambangi, believes that the swift recovery of farms infested by the fall armyworms across the country is a clear indication that the government has conquered the invasion of the fall armyworm.
According to him, though some farms are still being affected by the fall armyworm, huge acres of infested farms have been recovered through government’s swift intervention of spraying the armyworms.
[contextly_sidebar id=”VIJFBrdKUXwk5y2H8IUB5UGfr0eEA7BI”]Dr. Bambangi disclosed this after visiting 114 acres of maize farms in the Bongo district of the Upper East Region.
He noted that, though records from the Ministry of Food and Agriculture indicated that, since the first case of fall army worm in April 2016, enough measures were not taken to curtail its negative impact on farms.
Nonetheless, the ongoing spraying exercise has led to the recovery of lots of the infested farms, he stated.
“So far, I am impressed by the performance of our spraying programme and that of the farmers. I have been to the Upper West Region and here in the Upper East Region, and have seen the signs of the fall armyworms in the past in a lot of these farms; but I can also see how these farms have recovered.”
Dr. Bambangi intimated further that, projection of a bumper harvest was proof the armyworms have been defeated.
“…we have conquered the fall armyworm because the essence is for us to ensure that the crops recover so if the armyworms have not been able to deprive us of the bumper harvest we are expecting, then we will say we have conquered the armyworms. But we know that there are still remnants of the worms in the system and so we are putting in place medium to long-term measures to avert any future occurrence of the invasion of our farms by fall armyworm.”
–
By: Frederick Awuni/citifmonline.com/Ghana