The fall armyworm that invaded South
Africa in 2016 is a pest that sent the shivf
Crop Pests
Security
rations Manager, CropLife South Africa
s://bit.ly/2TQsbEp
H Verdoorn
t food supply while
easily spread bents
while proliferatepidemic
proporr
modern crops are
o plant pests and
s are omnipresent
There is no way in
uce enough food
le without supportund
pest managebeasts
are simply
competitive to be
atode pests
s like mites are conpests.
Nematodes
due to their small
totally devastating
s.
reaks
st outbreak in cenmple
of how a single
insect species can destroy virtually
all crops in a short period of time. We
have a similar species namely the migratory
locust in South Africa that damages
natural veld, but if left unchallenged it
invades cash crops like maize. Another
pest that occurs sporadic in many crops
is the African bollworm. There were
outbreaks in the Western Cape canola
and wheat in 2018 and 2019 that caught
farmers off guard. Our African armyworm
is another sporadic pest that often
“appears out of nowhere”, damages
veld and grazing and even spills over
into crops. The sporadic pests are perhaps
more dangerous than the endemic
pests because the farming community
does not expect such pests and are
unprepared to deal with it. The agricultural
sector and state agriculture organs
need to develop efficient early warning
systems for such sporadic pests to prepare
farmers better to combat them.
Invasive pests
Grassroots Vol 20 No 2 June 2020