VIDEO: Army worm invasion won’t lead to shortage of food – Minister

The Deputy Agriculture Minister has assured that the recent destruction of farmlands by army words that invaded the country would not lead to food shortage as has been predicted.
Over 112,000 farmlands have so far been infected by the fall army worms with 14,000 farms completely destroyed.
This has led to a threat to the livelihood of about 4 million farmers whose farmlands have been infested.
Farmers are said to be resorting to traditional means of fighting the worms by preparing concoctions of detergents and pepper, to apply on affected farms; a rudimentary approach which is working for the farmers.
Opposition communicators have predicted that there would be food shortage at the end of the farming season as farmers cannot record the required harvest to feed the nation.
Reacting to this on Adom FM’s Morning Show, ‘Dwaso Nsem’ Tuesday, the Deputy Agric Minister assured that the country would not suffer any form of food shortage as according to him, the fall army worm invasion is under control.
“Out of the 112,000 hectares that was attacked by the fall army worms, only 15,000 were destroyed completely, the Ministry introduced chemicals that have brought them under control and today, our farmers are happy…there won’t be food shortage this year or the next….,” he assured.
He further dispelled reports that the government have been unable to fight the army worm invasion.
The Central Regional Chairman of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Allotey Jacobs, claimed on the same show last week that the government was making use of cleaning detergent, ‘akeshaa’ to fight the army worms.
“The government is now fighting the army worms with akeshaa and this is really bad…the [Agric] Ministry has not been able to provide any solutions…,” he claimed.
But the Deputy Minister insisted this was false and challenged him to produce evidence to back his claims if he was indeed convinced that this was happening.
“Government is not fighting army worms with Akeshaa, that is a figment of his own imagination, we have to be serious because government is working hard to manage the army worms since they can’t be eradicated…,” he said.
He further explained that the army worms have come to stay and would have to be managed like other diseases that affects crops.