By Halima Athumani

KAMPALA, Uganda

Uganda has warned its citizens against an outbreak of the fall armyworm that could end up hitting the East African country’s annual agricultural produce hard, with losses projected at over $192 million if nothing is done to control it.

Confirming the outbreak to journalists in the capital Kampala, Minister for Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries Vincent Ssempijja said: “This will negatively impact the nations’ food and nutrition security, therefore, the population is urged to be on the lookout.”

The country produces four million metric tons of maize grain annually, which contributes to the livelihoods of over 3.6 million households.

Okasai Opolot, director crop resources, said: “If nothing is done on the armyworm, we are projecting that we could lose $192,857,000, which is up to 15 percent or 450,000 metric ton of our production.

“The figures we have are only reflective of maize, however, the pest affects more crops, heightening the potential loss to the economy.”

According to Ssempijja, Zambia which lost 130,000 hectares of maize to the pest in one season spent $3 million in an attempt to control the pest and Kenya set aside $1 million.

“Our government has set aside $280,000 which is now being used to control the pest,” he said.

The destructive stage of the migratory pest is the caterpillar that aggressively feeds on most parts of the plant, including the leaves, stems, maize cobs and tassels.

It was first detected in three districts of Uganda in 2016 but the minister said: “To date, the pest has been confirmed in over 20 districts and continues to spread to other districts at a very high rate.”

Previously, the fall armyworm was native to tropical and subtropical regions of the Americas.

The worm was first observed in Nigeria in January 2016 and is now reported in Togo, Ghana, Zambia, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Malawi, Namibia and Kenya.