By Prossy Nandudu
For two weeks now, some caterpillars have been ravaging gardens in Luwero district, eating up almost all crops.
The caterpillars wrecking havoc on both food and commercial crops in the district have now been identified by the Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries as the giant looper.
Unlike the African army worm and the fall army worm that have plagued farmers in the past, the giant looper eats and destroys most of the green vegetation and plants.
The giant looper mostly prefers avocados, mangoes, guavas and coffee; both the wild plant (Liberica) and the cultivated coffee varieties like clonal and Arabica, thus making it more destructive and a bigger threat to national food security.
The African army worm and the fall army worm, on the other hand, mostly eat and destroy cereal crops, which include sorghum, maize, millet and grass pasture, among others.
The revelations were made by a team of experts from the agriculture ministry, led by Charles Ogwang, a plant inspector from the Crop Protection Department and Evarist Magara, the base manager of the Desert Locust Control Organisation for Eastern Africa (DLCO-EA), that is giving technical backstopping to the ministry.
From the assessment, Magara said there is urgent need for further demonstrations of the effective pesticides and appropriate equipment for controlling the caterpillars.
The team was in Luwero district on Monday to evaluate progress on the management of the caterpillars, deliver more pesticides for field demonstrations, as well assess needs of further assistance.
What are giant loopers?
Giant loopers are caterpillars that walk while folding their body (looping) and form thread-like strings to facilitate and support movements.
“With the threadlike strings, they can balance in the air, but also swing to another plant or branch in search of food as they disperse, while the army worms are flat and straight during movement. Looper worms are slightly larger than the army worms, thus the name,” Magara explained.
The team supplied farmers with Cypermethrin 5% EC, a pesticide said to be effective in the management of the pest. In 2012, giant looper caterpillars attacked and destroyed farms in central Uganda, especially in parts of Mukono and Luwero, and the same pesticide, cypermethrin, was used to contain them.
The agriculture ministry team said the pesticide is affordable and readily available in drug shops locally. A litre of Cypermethrin currently costs between sh20,000 and sh25,000.
Extent of the problem
Wilberforce Semigga, the senior agriculture officer in Luwero district, explained that the caterpillars are spreading faster beyond the hotspots that were identified early this month.
He said apart from Bamunanika and Kalagala, which are the hotspots, the caterpillars are fast spreading to neighbouring sub-counties, and thus a big cause for worry for Luwero farmers and the neighbouring districts.
Semigga, however, added that from the demonstrations conducted so far, Cypermethrin works well.
“I have seen Cypermethrin 5% EC being very effective. From the efficacy trials, when you mix 50ml in 20 litres of water, these caterpillars die, but if you use less, they take long to die and sometimes don’t even die, especially the big ones. So, we are encouraging farmers to mix the recommended quantities for effective management,” Semigga added.
His remarks were backed up by Charles Kayanja, an extension worker attached to Bamunanika sub-county, who said the three parishes were the most hit and called for quick support from the Government to manage the challenge.
The parishes include Kiteme with 15 villages, Kyampisi with 12 villages and Kyibirizi with eight villages.
According to Magara, the caterpillars appear almost every year, but usually on a small scale. The caterpillars that are native to Uganda first became destructive in 2012, then reappeared in 2014 and also attacked former prime minister Apollo Nsibambi’s farm in Buloba, Wakiso district, but that motorised sprayers were used to contain the caterpillars.
Magara added that since then, the giant looper caterpillars had been appearing on a small scale, however, that what was reported in the first week of September in Luwero district was alarming.
He is, however, optimistic that with the first spraying demonstrations conducted by the agriculture ministry, coupled with the upcoming rains, the caterpillar population is likely to decline.
Through the demonstrations, farmers are shown how to use the Cypermethrin 5% EC, which the ministry has proved to be effective.
Magara added that from their observation, the current caterpillar population dies off or metamorphoses into another stage, especially with the onset of seasonal rains and that there are no butterflies or moths noticed so far, meaning that there may not be reproduction soon.
Advice to farmers Magara, however, added that because Uganda is prone to annual outbreaks of such caterpillars during the seasonal interchanges (months of February/May and August/September), farmers and the general public are advised to keep on the lookout and to report any such caterpillar outbreaks to the nearest agricultural office for action to prevent the spread.
Effect on farmers
According to Christine Naggawa from Kasolo Kitobola village, the giant looper caterpillars have destroyed her mangoes, avocados and guavas that have been her source of income.
“I got 60 mango trees from the National Agricultural Advisory Services in 2007, and 50 of them survived. In a good season, I harvest mangoes worth sh700,000 per tree,” she said.
“The money supports my household in terms of school fees and upkeep. But this year and even next year, I don’t know what will happen,” said Nagawa, whom New Vision found in her garden on Monday afternoon in Kitobola village in Bamunanika sub-county.
She further explained that the caterpillars also look out for the flowers on mango trees, as well as branches holding the small mangoes, which then drop prematurely.
The same applies to avocado plants, where after eating the flowers, the caterpillars then turn to leaves before crossing over to other plants.
Apart from crops that generate incomes for Naggawa, the caterpillars have crossed over to cassava, sweet potatoes, beans and coffee. That means Luwero is bound to go hungry.
“I request the Government to release pumps that can spray up the trees because applying the chemical on the ground will not help,” she added.
For Stella Nanteza Kiteme, the woman representative of Kiteme parish, as a result of the caterpillars, she foresees three challenges — starvation, disease and reduced production.
“Caterpillars eat all the banana leaves, sweet potatoes and cassava leaves. The housewives who depend on sales from matooke will have nothing to sell,” she stated, adding that excreta from the caterpillars has a bad smell and could result in diseases.
Nanteza noted that in a week, she has been selling bananas worth between sh200,000 and sh250,000. Should the caterpillar persist, she will have nothing to sell, not even for a family meal.
Other farmers who converged at Kitende parish in Bamunanika sub-county expressed frustrations and challenges in an attempt to control the caterpillars.
Some claimed that the caterpillars cause skin rashes and that chickens die when they consume them.
Farmers expressed willingness to shift temporarily from the area if the Government can conduct aerial spraying, just as it did for desert locusts.
