Armyworm - FG Holds Emergency Meeting As Maize Shortage Looms

Chief Audu Ogbeh

The Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Chief Audu Ogbeh  in an emergency meeting with state commissioners of agriculture to tackle growing spread of armyworms, devastating maize farms across the country.

The emergency meeting was to fashion out immediate response to the ongoing armyworms attacks, following reports of severe damage received from various states.

Commissioners of agriculture particularly from the affected states of Nasarawa, Abia, Adamawa, Kogi, Kwara, Oyo, Ekiti, Niger, Plateau and representatives of other states were present, where action plan was adopted. A control formula using inorganic and organic chemical control was adopted.

Simon Abua Yajir, the Special Adviser Agribusiness to Benue state governor, told the minister that the state might record 0% harvest if nothing was done.

Yajir said he has lost 50 hectares of maize to the pests and called for immediate and collective response to tackle the spread.

Ogbeh stressed that the situation deserves urgent solution as the country will face food shortage if all the maize farms in predominantly producing areas were destroyed.

He said if armyworm infestation is left uncontrolled it will lead to maize shortage as the worms destroy between 95 to 98 percent of any crops invaded.

The national demand for maize is estimated at 15.5 million metric tonnes, while current domestic production stands at 10.5 million metric tonnes.

The country has a demand gap of 5 million annually, Ogbeh said if the pests destroys 25% of the maize in the country it widen the gap to 7.6 million metric tonnes.

Stakeholders have agreed that the intervention and implementation should be a shared responsibility of the states and federal government in terms of funding the component activities.

The pests have the potential to destroy 700,000 hectares belonging to estimated over 700,000 maize farmers in the country.