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African armyworms threaten food security in Nyeri
Mr Peter Kairu displaying the African armyworm that has ravaged the grazing fields for their animals in Kieni. Over 1,000 acres have been ravaged.
Farmers in some parts of Kieni, Nyeri county are staring at starvation after a swarm of African armyworms invade their farms threatening their livelihood.
Open fields that farmers have been using as feeding grounds for their domestic animals in Tagwa village, the green and black worms are spread across forcing farmers to keep their animals away.
According to the farmers, the invasion has lasted about four days and has cleared vegetative plants and grass on one end of the grazing field.
“We noticed the worms immediately when the first rainfall of the year ended, like four days ago. They had not invaded before that,” said Mr Peter Kairu, a farmer.
He noted that with the rate at which the worm was raving the grass and clearing the fields, it will not be long before they invade the maize plantation.
“The general fear is that these worms will get into the farms and destroy the maize we were trying to salvage through the minimal rainfall we received and augment it with water from the rivers,” he added.
Owing to the huge tracts of land in the area, most farmers do not practice zero grazing meaning herds of cattle, goats and sheep feed from a common area on free range.
The African armyworm ravaging pasture and crops in Kieni
“When the farms are not doing too well, we rely on the cows and sell the milk but with this invasion if not checked we will lose even before we recover from the burns we have suffered during the drought,” he added.
The agriculture department has stated that over 1, 000 acres of land has been invaded by the worm.
They have however started spraying in the affected areas in both Kieni East and West with Nyeri agriculture executive James Muturi saying the situation was under control.
Kieni is the food basket of Nyeri county, seeing the population source their food stuff from different parts of the constituency.
“The worms have largely invaded community land, vegetation on the roadsides and few farms have registered an invasion on their crops, but the situation is under control,” he said.
He further added that the department had engaged agricultural officers to spray affected areas to ward-off the pest, which is feeding on grass or pasture and other crops in the maize family, while individual farmers are receiving chemicals to use on their farms.
“We were lucky to have some chemicals in the stores which helped us with immediate response. The chemicals are the same ones we used to fight off the fall army worm,” he said.
Farmers have been advised not to feed their animals in the open fields and not to consume the milk should their animals have wandered away and should report any health complications registered on the animals.
Ms Rose Nyokabi said they want immediate intervention with chemicals that are actually killing the worms saying that they do not want to rely on relief food every now and then.
“We want to be food reliant, and we have managed to go back to the farms with the rainfall we have received. The government should do more to eliminate these worms,” she said.
The African armyworm is more different from the fall army worm. It attacks the entire crop in the maize family and ravages both day and night and feeds while the latter feeds on young green maize alone.
