DEVELOPMENT-BENIN: Caterpillars Ravage Crops

By Ali Idrissou-Toure Reprint | | Print |

Ali Idrissou-Toure

COTONOU, Jul 28 1999 (IPS) - An army of black caterpillars have invaded farmlands in northern Benin, leaving behind a trail of destruction and tears.

The caterpillars, commonly known as “legionnaire”, measure between five and 10 centimetres and have the capability of devastating a square metre of cornfield in just 30 minutes, according to a rural development officer at Kobrikonto, a village 25 kilometers west of the northern city of Parakou.

“These worms can destroy an entire field full of crops in just one day,” says the Association of Journalists for Environmental Education, a non-governmental organisation (ngo), based in Cotonou, the capital of Benin.

The Association has warned that the worms will spread beyond the affected region, if urgent measures are not taken to stop their spread.

“These black caterpillars attack corn, sorghum, rice and all edible vegetation. But they’re not interested in yams, and certain types of beans,” explains a plant protection officer at Kobrikonto.

Worou Soro, a farmer in the village, complains that the caterpillars “have the appetite of a horse”.

His colleague, Worou Alassane, agrees. “These nasty pests come on like a marauding army all dressed in black. When they start in on a field, they often attack the plants as a group”.

“In no time the field looks as if nothing had ever been planted there”, she says.

The most affected areas include Kouande, Pehunco, Djougou, N’Dali, Tchaourou and Parakou. The pace of the infestation has been described by farmers and local agriculture officials as fascinating.

“I was in my courtyard last Saturday at about 5 PM local time when I saw one of the caterpillars. Between the time I went into my bedroom and came out again, they were everywhere, all over the ground and the walls… And they don’t even have wings”, says a local agriculture official in the region.

The caterpillar can travel approximately 10 kilometers in four days, according to the official, who declined to be named. An excited farmer told IPS that, “In my 40 years in Kobrikonto, I have never seen such a thing.”

The Association has called upon the government to eliminate the worms immediately. It says grain production would be seriously effected, if no action is taken against the caterpillars.

The Association also has urged Benin to introduce an early warning system to monitor and inform farmers about potential invasion by the worms in the future.

According to the state-run Beninois plant protection service, the agriculture officials in the affected region were only informed of the invasion three weeks ago. Since then, two teams have been dispatched to Borgou and Atacora to monitor the situation.

The teams have been charged with identifying and destroying the worms, mostly with insecticides which have been proven to be effective against the caterpillars, whose lifespan is estimated to be about three days.