Johannesburg - An outbreak of fall armyworms that has attacked
corn plants in South Africa may spread to sugarcane in the KwaZulu-Natal
province, where a warm climate would help the pest survive through the year,
the Agricultural Research Council said.
The alien pest, confirmed in South Africa this month, has
already spread to all nine provinces including eastern KwaZulu-Natal, where the
bulk of cane is grown in the nation. There aren’t yet any reports of
infestations, Roger Price, a manager at the Pretoria-based ARC, said in an
e-mailed reply to questions on Thursday.
“We are very concerned that fall armyworms will get into
the sugarcane along the KwaZulu-Natal coast, where it could persist in the
warmer climatic conditions,” he said. “My personal view is that the vast bulk
of the commercial maize crop has not been damaged and that national food
security is not currently at risk.”
The armyworms, which arrived in West Africa from the
Americas early in 2016, spread south through Zambia and Zimbabwe before
arriving in Africa’s biggest producer of corn, the region’s staple food. There
are reports of the pest in Greyton, KwaZulu-Natal, about 70 kilometres north
east of the coastal area where sugarcane is grown, Price said.
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Temperatures along the KwaZulu-Natal coastline are
generally higher than South Africa’s inland areas because of the warm waters of
the Indian Ocean, providing a more conducive climate for the fall armyworm,
which comes from the tropics in the Americas.
It’s difficult to predict what impact an outbreak in
KwaZulu-Natal’s cane fields could have, Carolyn Baker, director of the South
African Sugarcane Research Institute, said in reply to e-mailed questions.
“We are worried but are somewhat comforted by the fact
that the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries has circulated a
series of responses that can be applied in the event that the armyworm is
detected,” she said. “We are taking the lead from the department at this
stage.”