23 Jun 2014

Fruit fly has a wide range of hosts among them mangoes, tomatoes and citrus fruits. The fly threatens agricultural production and productivity.

This surfaced at the fruit fly management stakeholder’s awareness programme which was launched recently at Kazungula.

When delivering the keynote address, the director of agribusiness promotion, Mr Boweditswe Masilo pointed out that while the mandate of the Ministry of Agriculture was to facilitate food production, it had over the years been battling with outbreaks of pests and diseases.

He said it was that reason that measures were put in place to control both pests and diseases before they could become uncontrollable and threaten food security and nutrition.

Mr Masilo further explained that this is why other stakeholders such as farmers needed to come on board and help government to effectively control pests and diseases.

He pointed out that fruit fly causes damaged through direct feeding on fruits and vegetables both cultivated and wild. Mr Masilo said damage of produce did not only affect quantities but also the quality of produce, since damaged fruits or vegetables are of no or little nutritional value and are therefore not marketable.

He also explained that because the fruit fly is highly mobile and has a wide range of hosts, no control measures can be carried out effectively in isolation hence the need for collaboration with other countries.

That was why, he noted, an agreement was made by countries threatened by the pest being Botswana, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe to jointly make a project memorandum in order to request for funding from the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) to control the pest.

Furthermore, he said FAO has since agreed to fund Botswana to the tune of P1.7 million to control the pest along the Chobe Enclave. For his part, the director of crop production, Mr Galeitsiwe Ramokapane explained that the fruit fly outbreak occurred in 2010 in Chobe, July 2012 in Tuli area and May 2013 in the North-East.

Mr Ramokapane explained that lack of experience makes Botswana prone to this pest more especially because control of these pests at borders and at veterinary gates has proven to be a difficult task. He explained that regular movement of agricultural products at the border is also a problem with informal traders posing a high risk.

When making a presentation on the Fruit Fly Strategy and Stakeholders Roles, Ms Tlhabologang Johnson who is the project coordinator pointed out that surveys have been conducted right from the point of first fly catch.

She said limited resources have only ensured coverage along the roads and not further into the park where there are wild hosts which need to be identified as well as the extent of infestation.

Ms Tlhabologang also explained that there are management strategies in place and this included orchard sanitation, quarantine, chemical control and selection of non-hosts vegetables during the period to suppress the inoculums and public awareness creation among others.

Emphasis was made on the importance of all stakeholders including farmers, traders, Botswana Unified Revenue Services (BURS), police and other government stakeholders to take part in the control and fight of the pest because it has no boundaries. ENDS