Agroaldea
The millet budworm has become plague in Africa, where in less than a year it has been extended by twelve countries.
The plague that is ravaging crops and plantations of Central Africa came to Nigeria in January 2016, and experts believe likely his jump to southern Europe.
This is a caterpillar five centimeters, Americas endemic in the tropics. It was in January 2016 when the detected armyworm (‘Spodoptera frugiperda’) razing fields in Nigeria millo, millet and sorghum.
A year later it has spread to twelve countries, seven of them in the last two months. The losses amount to 290.000 hectares of crops only in Zambia, Malawi, Namibia and Zimbabwe. The threat, it approaches southern Europe, He has forced the FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization) to organize an emergency meeting to organize the defense against the larvae of this moth.
The armyworm is a native of America, where it causes heavy losses: FAO estimates that Brazil spends annually about 565 million euros to control the caterpillar. In Africa, His presence represents a new and costly threat to food security in the region: “We are very concerned about the appearance, intensity and spread of the pest”, said the FAO sub-regional coordinator for Southern Africa, David Phiri, during the three-day meeting held this month in Harare (They Laue).
Zimbabwe is one of the most threatened countries 130.000 hectares affected-a tenth of corn plantado- whose control has already cost more than 1,8 million euros. Behind are Zambia (90.000 hectares), Namibia (50.000 hectares) and Malawi (17.000 hectares). The main problem is the lack of technical capacity by many African governments to control the spread of the pest. To further complicate the situation, the continent already has its own species of this pest, African armyworm (Spodoptera exempt '), which feeds on the leaves of corn.
FAO believes that a quick counterattack is essential. So he has begun to place pheromone traps to catch the bug and monitor its spread. Also, It has begun to coordinate actions to improve the preparedness of countries in the region, infected or not, Face to combat cogollero.
The, zoologist Northwest University Potchefstroom (South Africa), Johnnie van den Berg, He explains that the worst is that the budworm feeds on leaves ferocity of millet, but also spoils the cob, so the damage is even greater.
The armyworm can not survive temperatures below zero, but that would not be a problem when colonizing countries like Spain. “It is likely to expand from its current position along pretty fast sub-Saharan Africa. From there it's just a jump to Southern Europe”, says researcher at the University of Lancaster (United Kingdom) Ken Wilson in the journal 'Nature'.
Van der Berg also considered likely this option, if we consider that “possibly the plague traveled from America to Africa through the air ". The expert believes, and the caterpillar can be fed more than a hundred plant species, not be surprising that become established in the southern part of Europe. In your opinion, climate change and increased global trade can foster expansion and conquest of this tiny but harmful larva.