By SYLVESTER MWALE and RABECCA CHIPANTA –

.Army Worm

ARMY worm, the crop-eating caterpillars that wreaked havoc in farmers’ fields in different parts of the country last year, have been spotted in Mumbwa District in Central Province.
The latest emergence comes barely two days after authorities in Southern Province revealed that Mazabuka, Monze and Pemba districts had also been invaded.
Central Province Permanent Secretary Chanda Kabwe, who inspected one of the invaded fields in Chiwena area, described the situation as bad and needing immediate remedy to save the crops.
He said about two hectares of maize field in the area had been ravaged by the pest while fears among the farmers were growing.
Mr Kabwe, however, said that K36 million was released last week to fight the breakout and assured that the Government was prepared to help the farmers secure their crops.
The permanent secretary conducted a fact-finding mission on the eve of Christmas to assess the extent of the damage caused to agricultural fields in Mumbwa district.
“The army worms pose a big threat to the country’s food security. The good news is that Government has prepared some funds; last week K36 million was released to fight the army worms,” said the permanent secretary.
“The army worms have come to stay and as Government, we are looking at how well we can help the farmers because the pesticide is so expensive that some of our farmers cannot afford to buy it.”
Mr Kabwe said small-scale farmers were big contributors to national food security because they were the ones who sold their produce to the Food Reserve Agency (FRA) which was later stored in national reserves.
He said President Edgar Lungu attached great importance to the agriculture sector and that he wanted to see farmers increase their contribution to the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) through increased crop production.
He asked District Commissioner Felix Ndopu to tour the district and identify the fields that had been affected by army worms in the area to enable Government provide adequate control measures at an early stage.