MoFA tackles Armyworm infestation in North East Region
The Ministry of Food and Agriculture has dispatched a team of crop experts to the North East Region to ascertain the level of devastation visited on farms by the Fall Armyworms in the region.
The team is also taking along a truck load of 8,189 litres of liquid and 3,750 kilogramme of powdered chemicals to augment the stock in the region.
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The two-member team, led by the Director of the Plant Protection and Regulatory Services Directorate of the ministry, Dr Felicia Ansah-Amprofi, will be joined by other officials of MoFA in the region.
Among areas to be visited are the Northern, North East, Upper East and Upper West regions to ascertain the level of infestation of the worm and strategise on the way forward.
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The move is a reaction to publication by the Daily Graphic that the armyworms have resurfaced and were wreaking havoc on large hectares of farmlands in the North East Region, in spite of the government’s interventions to contain the worms in the country.
Dr Ansah-Amprofi, however, dismissed the claims, saying, there were enough chemicals to contain the worms and blamed the municipal director of agriculture in the area for failing to request for more chemicals.
She explained that there were enough chemicals at the regional directorate of the ministry and it was expected that if a district ran out of supply, the district director would report to the regional office for more supplies.
According to her, the intervention by the government was for smallholder farmers with two or three hectares.
Dr Ansah-Amprofi further stated that the Armyworms have come to stay, “it is not going anywhere, they are with us.
It is just like mosquitoes” adding that what the country can do was to contain the worms.
She, therefore, advised farmers to abide by the correct time of planting to avoid over-concentration on their farms and that they should also patronise improved seeds that can withstand the worm infestation.