Accra (Greater Accra) 14 July '99
A Member of Parliament on Tuesday appealed to the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MOFA) to supply adequate logistics to the Yendi district to fight army worms which have invaded the area.
Alhaji Malik Alhassan Yakubu, NPP-Yendi, said in a statement to the house that the worms have attacked 203 acres of farms.
Unfortunately, the 20 litres of insecticide supplied could only cater for 123 acres, leaving over 70 acres to the mercy of the worms, he said, adding that in the meantime, more cases are being reported.
''Apart from inadequate supply of chemicals, the Yendi Directorate of Agriculture have insufficient number of knapsack spraying machines and lacks funds to purchase fuel also for the exercise.''
Alhaji Yakubu said he personally assisted the MOFA office with 6.5 million cedis from the MPs Share of the District Assemblies Common Fund to purchase 60 litres of chemicals, seven knapsack sprayers and fuel.
He said urgent measures should be taken to deal effectively with the army worm invasion which has the potential to seriously affect agricultural produce this year.
