With millions of dollars and pesticides - that is how the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) hopes regional governments will tackle the fall armyworm, a deadly pest that has overrun farmlands in six countries in the SADC region. The FAO, the convener of a regional meeting scheduled for Harare on Tuesday, hopes that regional governments will commit sufficient finances to tackle the fall armyworm. "The funds for fighting the pest will come from the governments and already, Zambia has put in about $3-million. We are not sure about Zimbabwe, but authorities there have provided their farmers with pesticides and South Africa will provide [them] as well," Chimimba David Phiri, the FAO's sub-regional co-ordinator for Southern Africa, said this week. The meeting would produce a co-ordinated response from the region, Phiri said, as he ruled out the possibility of a fund against the fall armyworm being set up by the UN agency. "Those countries which might not have enough resources ca...
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