SA’s farmers ready for the armyworms tormenting neighbours, says Agri SA
South African farmers are not worried about an invasion of armyworms despite the pesky caterpillars devastating maize crops in three neighbouring countries. Instead‚ the plight of farmers in the Southern African Development Community (Sadc) could be beneficial to SA farmers‚ who could export to the other countries as SA faces a bumper maize crop this season. Malawi reported earlier in January that armyworms had destroyed 2,000ha of crops in the past few weeks. The outbreak in Malawi follows one in Zambia‚ where the army was deployed to battle the armyworms‚ and Zimbabwe. Armyworms are caterpillars capable of destroying entire crops in a matter of weeks. They get their names from their habit of marching in large numbers into crops‚ like a military formation.
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