Forget Alien Armyworms, a Bigger Threat to African Corn May Loom

Tue, 17 Nov 2020 03:03:37 GMT

Locusts breeding in central Zambia may pose a bigger threat to farmers in southern Africa than the fall armyworm that’s ravaged crops this year, according to an organization that combats the pests.

Red locusts have already reached densities of as much as 50 per square meter over 76,000 hectares (187,800 acres) in an area known as the Kafue Flats, Moses Okhoba, director of the International Red Locust Control Organization for Central and Southern Africa, said in an interview late Tuesday. If uncontrolled, they could form swarms of 40 million insects, destroying corn fields in their way.

“If you had an outbreak of locusts, the situation will be about ten times worse when compared to when you had fall armyworms,” Okhoba said in Harare, Zimbabwe’s capital. “You do not want to see a swarm of locusts in your field because then you will not be talking of anything to harvest or to see.”

Southern African countries including Zambia, Zimbabwe and South Africa are already battling an outbreak of crop-eating caterpillars that arrived from the Americas last year. Locust swarms would be yet another setback for growers in the region, which is still recovering from the worst drought in more than 35 years. While hoppers, or larvae, have infested only 1,600 hectares of crop fields, they must be immediately stopped from expanding further, according to Okhoba.

Staple Food

A swarm of 40 million insects can eat 80,000 tons and travel anywhere between 20 kilometers (12 miles) to 100 kilometers a day, depending on winds, he said, speaking on the sidelines of a regional emergency meeting to combat pests. Most farmers in southern Africa grow corn, the staple food in the region.

“At the moment the locusts are breeding in Tanzania, Malawi and Mozambique,” said Okhoba. “Outbreaks from these areas, depending on the period, can affect countries all around the region.”

Zambian President Edgar Lungu already instructed the treasury to release funds to the International Red Locust Control Organization to complete surveying and start spraying pesticides to prevent an outbreak.

Zambia Keeps Corn-Export Ban as It Seeks to Build Reserves

Tue, 17 Nov 2020 03:03:08 GMT

Zambia, the only southern African country except Tanzania to produce a corn surplus this year, will maintain a ban on exports of the crop as it struggles to build strategic reserves amid rising prices and surging regional demand.

“The ban will last as long as necessary until we are fully satisfied that we feed the Zambian nation,” Julius Shawa, permanent secretary at the Agriculture Ministry, said Wednesday by phone from the capital, Lusaka. “The demand from some of our neighboring countries is way above what we have in the country, so we cannot allow exports at the expense of Zambians.”

The government had by last month bought slightly more than a quarter of its 1 million metric-ton strategic-stock target for white corn, the staple that’s ground into a powder to make a thick porridge known locally as nshima. Private buyers are offering as much as 41 percent more than the price the government pays, with record prices in some provinces, according to the Famine Early Warning Systems Network, or Fewsnet.

High demand and prices in neighboring countries including Malawi and the Democratic Republic of Congo mean corn continues to exit Zambia despite the formal export ban, Fewsnet said in an Oct. 1 report. The government is allowing the World Food Programme to export 48,000 tons of corn for food relief in Malawi, Zimbabwe and Mozambique.

“We’ve tried to as much as possible contain the smuggling,” Shawa said. “It is being brought to manageable levels but of course the borders are so long you cannot control each and every point.”

Regional Drought

Zambia increased corn production this year to yield a 634,681-ton surplus despite a regional drought that’s the worst in 35 years, the Agriculture Ministry said in May. The government later that month suspended exports until the end of September to secure the country’s stocks. The country has enough corn to last into 2017 even as it sees losses to smuggling and the government’s Food Reserve Agency missed its stocks target, Shawa said.

Tanzania, normally a major regional exporter of corn, in August said its farmers were expected to produce about 6.1 million tons against demand of 5.2 million tons. The nation is discouraging food exports until July 2017, saying local production of grains is enough to cover domestic demand, with very little to spare for shipments.

“We are food-secure as a country,” Zambia’s Shawa said. “Between the private sector and government, we have sufficient stocks of maize to take us up to next year.”

The increasing prices private buyers are offering farmers could incentivize them to plant more in the upcoming season, provided fertilizer and seed was affordable and rainfall is good, Fewsnet said.