The government has distributed agro-chemicals to various farms in the southern part of Ghana to help fight the threatening army worm invasion.
The distribution is being coordinated by the National Taskforce for the Control and Management of the invasion.
The chemicals are being distributed free of charge, as the government is treating the invasion as an emergency and disaster issue.
The army worm invasion has since affected maize and cowpea farms in the southern sector, but Emmanuel Asante-Krobea, the Chief Technical Advisor at the Agriculture Ministry, assured of government’s plan to contain the situation.
He noted that “chemicals were dispatched to all the regional offices in all the regions of the south, but for the northern parts, they haven’t started planting yet.”
“We are waiting for feedback from the regional directors, as to receiving it to be able to service the farmers and already, the regions and districts have put in place spraying gangs who are going to do the spraying the grounds. So when the chemicals arrive, straight away, they go into action.”
According to the Agriculture Ministry, in 2016, the army worms destroyed 4,500 hectares of farmlands in Ghana.
Since March 2017, the army worms have destroyed more than 1,370 hectares of maize, cowpea and cocoa farms with the Brong Ahafo, Ashanti and Western Regions being the most affected areas.
Meanwhile, the Ghana COCOBOD has ruled out any significant impact of the army worm infestation on the output for cocoa for the 2016/2017 crop season.
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(Via: CitiFM Online Ghana)
