By SAM PHIRI –
THE Disaster Management and mitigation Unit (DMMU) says 142,000 out of 172, 000 hectares of maize fields attacked by armyworms have been sprayed and were out of danger.
DMMU national coordinator Patrick Kangwa said yesterday that out of the reported cases from all 10 provinces of Zambia, Lusaka, Central and copperbelt which were worst hit, had been totally stabilised.
Mr Kangwa however said there were new reports from Pemba Southern province which had recorded an alarming 10,000 hectarage of armyworm invasion on the crop.
“In terms of percentage, we have remained with only 30 percent that has not been sprayed and at the rate we are going, we are likely to recover the entire 172 hectors of maize,” he said.
Mr Kangwa has however appealed to famers to remain alert and report any suspicion of armyworms even in areas where spraying had already been done.
In terms of crop damage, Mr Kangwa said the worst they would record would be below 40 percent of the 172,000 reported hectares.
He disclosed that government had purchased 87,000 of the chemicals of which 71,000 had already been used with help from the Zambia National Service (ZNS) and reinforcement from the Zambia Correctional Service (ZCS).
He said so far, statistics had not recorded 100 percent crop damage but that the DMMU officers were still assessing damage especially from the copperbelt which was worst hit and the newly-reported Pemba district.
Mr Kangwa also revealed that so far out of all the districts, only five had not reported presence of notorious armyworms.
He said the DMMU was also in touch with neighbouring Zimbabwe and Malawi so as to allow a cross border invasion of the destructive armyworm.
On the reported red locusts, Mr Kangwa said the DMMU was ready to deal with the matter but that it was not an outbreak as the case with the armyworms.