Government forms task force to fight army worms

Government has set up a task force for the control and management of army worm infestation of farms in the country.

Ghana experienced the infestation of the Fall Army Worm (FAW) in all parts of the country, except in the Western Region in 2016 where approximately 4,052 hectares of maize and cowpea fields were destroyed.

At a press conference held at the Ministry of Food and Agriculture in Accra on Wednesday 10 May, sector minister Owusu Afriyie Akoto said the infestation was of a global nature, affecting other countries in the sub-region, and had devastated cereals and legume crop fields in both eastern and southern Africa with serious negative socio-economic consequences on food security, farmer income, and Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in affected countries.

“We have since the beginning of the year mounted surveillance for detection and prevalence of army worms in all districts and have detected incidents of pest infestation in a number of districts in the Ashanti, Central, Northern, Western, Eastern, and Brong Ahafo regions,” he stated.

The task force has been tasked to coordinate sensitisation and awareness of farmers on detection of FAW, surveillance and monitoring, implementation of prevention and control measures against FAW, research for other long-term measures to combat the pest, and source for resources for short- and long-term strategies to combat the menace.

Mr Akoto, however, noted that government had made available needed funds to combat and minimise the level of infestation.