AGRICULTURAL NEWS - Although recent drought conditions have had a significant negative impact on South Africa’s 2018/2019 summer crop production, the lack of rain could have resulted in reduced damage from fall armyworm (FAW) infestations this season.
This was according to Jan-Hendrik Venter, manager of plant health early warning systems at the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries.
Venter told Farmer’s Weekly that the drought conditions had resulted in many summer grain producers either planting late or not planting at all, particularly maize farmers.
“There have been fall armyworm [infestations] in the Lowveld areas that had decent rain, but most of the Highveld summer crop production areas where rainfall was poor experienced relatively little to no fall armyworm [infestations] and associated damage,” he said.
