PFAG member develops biological solution to worms

A member of the Peasant Farmers Association of Ghana (PFAG) has developed a biological solution which helps to kill the fall army worms that have attacked a number of maize farms across the country.

Dr Elias Amakye, Ashanti Regional Focal Person of PFAG, who developed the biological solution, said “it is very penetrating and goes into the hide-out of the worms in the crops and kills them in less than five minutes.

The biological solution involves mixing chili pepper, garlic and any kind of oil, which should be applied to the hide-out of the fall army worm on the crop to destroy it.

Dr Amakye announced this solution at a conference in Tamale organized by PFAG with support from Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) to provide government with evidence of successes and challenges of the implementation of the Planting for Food and Jobs (PFJ) and the Fertilizer Subsidy Programmes.

The PFJ has helped a number of farmers to increase the number of acres of crops they cultivate but the fall army worm infestation of some of the maize fields has become a source of worry to farmers, whose fields have been affected.

Dr Amakye said he applied the solution to part of his 15-acre maize farm, which was attacked by the fall army worms at Konongo in the Ashanti Region, and it killed the worms in less than five minutes.

He expressed the hope that government would recognize his solution and encourage farmers to use it to control the fall army worm infestation of maize crops across the country.

He also appealed to government to help farmers to fumigate farmlands affected by the fall army worms this year saying that was the only way to completely destroy the breeding grounds of the worms to prevent them from resurfacing next farming season.

Mr Abdul-Rahman Mohammed, President of PFAG, was happy that efforts were being made to find lasting solutions to the fall army worm challenge, which had caused a lot of damage to crops this year.