Famers in Mundri West County of Western Equatoria state have started fresh cultivation after an armyworms invasion destroyed their planations this month.

In the last few weeks, the farming communities lamented the destruction of crops by an outbreak of army-worms in the Mundri and Lamaka areas.

The pests, commonly known as the African armyworms reportedly invaded farms and chewed on maize and other cereal crops at the beginning of the planting season.

Meanwhile, the Commissioner of Mundri West has declared the end of the pests outbreak, upon the assurance by a team of agricultural experts.

Zilfa Dawa Justin said the pests have disappeared, thanks to extreme weather conditions.

“The situation now is okay, because the food security team advised us that this armyworm will last only for 14 days and it then it will disappear. One day, there was a heavy rain in the County, and after that heavy rain, the armyworms disappeared,” said Zilfa.

The cereal-eating African armyworms consumed plantations, raising fears of a looming food security threat to farming communities.

The outbreak prompted the government to form a food security assessment team to address the crisis.

Commissioner Zilfa says the local farmers have started another planting amidst uncertainty and little seedlings.

“Now, the farmers have started the cultivation again because they missed the first season to pest and they planted all the seeds but unfortunately it was destroyed. Now that it is okay, they are planting again,” she told Eye Radio.

The team of agricultural experts delegated by the state government to help farmers in combating the pests has not declared the outbreak over.

But, the commissioner says the farmers cannot wait for the findings as time flies.

“The group of food security team came there to assess the situation because there are two things to be done; and one of them is to help the farmers. I think they have collected all the information they want. But we have not received the final assessment from them, so the people can’t wait,” she stated.

African armyworms are subtropical crop pests capable of destroying cereal crops in a matter of weeks.

In 2017, the government declared an armyworm outbreak in Magwi, Yei and Juba of the Equatoria region as well as the Northern Bahr-el-Gazal, and parts of the Jonglei area.