Zambia: More than 8,000 farmer households in Mkushi District have reported pest attacks on their soya bean fields over the past week. The farmers have called the administration to help them in combatting the situation.
Mkushi District Senior Agriculture Officer (SAO) Patrick Mutale shared further details about the infestation. He said 8,426 households from 10 agricultural camps have been affected by pest attacks on soya beans.
Mutale stated that the pests had been identified as ‘black beetle’, adding that a total of 5,017 hectares have been ravaged since the beginning of the year.
The Senior Agriculture Officer noted that the government is making concerted efforts to address the situation. He also announced that the recommended intervention would involve applying chemical pesticides such as Benzoic Emelectine.
Officer Mutale said out of the 10 affected agricultural camps, Lweo camp has so far recorded the highest with 1,892 farmers affected and 1,005 hectares ravaged by pests.
He explained that the pest attacks were also high in other camps such as Nshinso which recorded 1,672 affected farmers and 628 hectares.
Further Mutale mentioned that the pest attacks were at lower scale in some camps such as Chibefwe camp where 231 farmers reported attacks on 78 hectares.
He however stressed that his office is making plans to ensure the situation is addressed to protect all 35 agricultural camps that are spread over the 7 agricultural blocks. The government is expected to provide pesticides to the affected agriculture camps to assist them in this situation.
In a related development, farms in Zambia are facing an infestation of armyworms in the farms across many districts. The authorities have also taken the initiative to work towards finding a solution to this major issue.
The administration has been supporting the population engaged in the agriculture sector. For the armyworm infestation, the administration has started training the farmers to combat the infestation.