NGO equips farmers to fight fall armyworms

Circle for Integrated Community Development (Cicod), a non-governmental organisation (NGO), has given pesticides and sprayers to Chikwawa District farmers under Mikolongo Extension Planning Area (EPA) to help reduce the impact of the fall armyworms attack.

CicodChikwawa project officer Aubrey Kambewa said during the handover ceremony that most farmers were greatly affected by the fall armyworms, which will likely affect their harvest.

“When we realised how it affected various crops in the area, we thought of supplying farmers with pesticides, sprayers as well as maize seeds. We hope they will use the seeds in residual moisture as well as in winter so that they are able to produce something.

“Our plea to the communities here is that they should do their best to use the pesticides and the sprayers in a rightful manner and as effective as possible,” he said.

The organisation handed over the items to three group village heads of Chizenga, Chambuluka and Juwanisi under Senior Chief Ngabu.

Each of the village heads received 15 sprayers of 15 litres each, 500 bottles of sulban pesticides of which one bottle will cover two hectares (ha), surpassing 182 hectares required to be protected as per the EPA’s report.

They were also given 450 packets of two kilogrammes of hybrid maize and sweet potato vines.

Chikwawa district agriculture development officer JosephyChikoya commended Cicod for the help, saying this complements government’s efforts to deal with the impact of the fall armyworms.

“This type of armyworms attack any crop be it maize, sugarcane, rice, beans, and pigeon peas. But if we tell our farmers to do early spraying of pesticides, they will likely defeat its attack and be able to save some crops,” he said.

Senior Chief Ngabu said fall armyworms affected most parts of the district.

Cicod, through the support from Trocaire, pumped in K7 million for the purchase of sprayers, pesticides and seeds.