The recent outbreak of fall armyworms destroying crops across Africa may cost the continent around $3 billion in lost corn output in the coming year, according to an estimate by the Centre for Agricultural Biosciences International.
Native to the Americas, the caterpillar mysteriously landed on the African continent recently and targeted a range of plantations including cotton, soybean, potato and tobacco.
B.M Prasanna, director of the Global Maize Programme at CimmyT, said that the caterpillars pose a “frightening risk” to food security on the continent.
They also travel extremely fast, as according to the U.N.’s Food and Agriculture Organisation, they have taken only around eight weeks to spread to the six southern African countries where there are suspected infestations.
With such a damaging influence on farming in particular regions of southern Africa, the governments are looking for new ways to try and combat the pest. Insecticides are seen as the main way, as the chemicals can be used to deal with the pest in its early stages, but after that it becomes much harder, and some populations of fall armyworm have been reported to have developed a resistance.
Other approaches involve digging trenches, employing natural predators, like birds, to eat the worms or even burning the crops.
