13 Aug 2013

The Ministry of Agriculture has informed members of the public and the farming community that there is an outbreak of the Asian Fruit Fly in some farms in the North East District.

A press release from the ministry said, as a result of this outbreak, the affected farms had been placed under quarantine with immediate effect.

These farms included Ditladi, Rodgers Ngwenya, Jokonia Mokokomani, Johana Mmolawa, AgriBots- Monarch farm, Tobokani B. Majoo and Mandla Kagiso.

The Asian Fruit Fly had a wide range of host crops including tomatoes, citrus, cucumber, mango, cashew nuts, papaya, guava, green pepper, water melons, squash, pumpkin, butternuts, bananas, avocado and several wild host plants including morula and wild monkey orange (mogorogorwana).

The release said the main pathway for fruit flies to spread from one area to another and from one country to another was through the movement of infested fruits.

To prevent its spread to other parts of the country, the ministry came up with quarantine measures, which would be with immediate effect; all fruit from the affected farms should be subjected to either cold, or heat or chemical treatments for markets outside the infested areas and movement of fruits from affected farms will require a permit issued by Plant Protection Division regardless of quantity.

Other measures included mass trapping of the flies in and outside the farms using insecticides and synthetic lures will be carried out. Coordination of filed sanitation measures through collecting and destroying infested fruits will also be carried out.

For this operation to be a success, the public’s full cooperation and participation in eradicating fruit fly will be highly appreciated. Ends