By Kennedy Senelwa

The African Development Bank (AfDB) has approved a $14.57 million supplementary loan for South Sudan’s power project.

The money will be used to rehabilitate and expand electricity distribution networks in the capital city.

Juba lacks a reliable power supply network due to dilapidated infrastructure. Consumers are therefore forced to rely on diesel generators.

“The project will contribute in reducing inefficiencies in the power distribution network and increase electricity access in Juba,” said Gabriel Negatu, AfDB’s director- general of the East Africa regional development and business delivery office.

He added: “The project will increase the electrification rate in south Sudan, both for residential and commercial use.”

Mr Negatu said that the country’s infrastructure particularly the energy sector is in its infancy and would require substantial investments to create an enabling environment for economic development.

He said that South Sudan needs the support of development partners to forge ahead.

The money will be used to build 145 kilometres of 33kilovot (kV) lines, 370 km of 415 and 230 volt lines, buy 20,000 pre-paid meters to connect new customers to the national grid, and buy and install 195 transformer stations.

The supplementary loan to be distributed under the African Development Fund, covers a budget deficit of the total project financing granted four years ago.

On December 18, 2013, AfDB approved a grant of $26 million to finance South Sudan’s power project.

Millions of Safaricom customers were unable to make calls Monday morning after the mobile service provider experienced a technical hitch.

The technical problem affected subscribers countrywide with the company saying it is working to resolve the issue.

“Sorry we are having a slight technical fault with the network services countywide but the issue is being resolved,” the company posted on its Twitter account.

Data from Communications Authority of Kenya shows that Safaricom has the highest number of mobile subscribers with 26.6 million customers.

By Kathy Sikombe

Zambia has long relied on rainfall to generate electricity. But with climate change rapidly depleting water sources, people are turning to charcoal for their power needs, prompting calls to ban the black fuel.

As dropping rainfall levels continue to dry up many of the dams generating power in the country, Zambians have been left searching for alternative energy sources. Amid the country’s energy crisis, the government has rationed electricity and a shortage of sustainable options has led to a skyrocketing demand for charcoal.

While a new market for the black fuel has generated economic opportunities for many, its harvesting, production and burning comes at great cost to the Zambian landscape.

Economy versus environment

As more and more people turn to charcoal prices have rapidly increased. A 50 kilogram bag of charcoal now costs around 15 euros ($16 USD) compared to 8 euros ($9 USD) a year ago.

Emma Mwanza sells charcoal at Mtendere Market in the capital Lusaka. Her sales, she said, have helped improve her personal finances, allowing her to better take care of her children.

“I continue to sell charcoal because I find a lot of money in it. In a day I can make 200 euros or so even more,” Mwanza said. “I raise my children through this business – I take them to school,I find food, I bought a house using this business. I can’t stop it because the business, I have found, is better for me than anything else.”

Despite its economic advantages, this charcoal boom is threatening the country’s already fragile environment.

Charcoal is made using wood, which means hundreds of thousands of hectares of woodlands must be felled for its production. Forests cover around 60 percent of Zambia’s territory or some 45.8 million hectares of land. The country already has one of the highest deforestation rates in the world, clearing around 300,000 hectares of forest per year, according to the United Nations Forestry Department.

Unsustainable deforestation rates

Although the rate of forest felling is acknowledged as unsustainable, the lack of alternative energy supply has pushed Zambia into a ‘charcoal trap,’ which must be regulated, said Mwape Sichilongo from the World Wide Fund for Nature.

“If over 90 percent of the population depends on charcoal then it’s definitely not sustainable,” Sichilongo said. “Charcoal production means removal of trees and with the increasing pressure and the increasing prices, it means it’s also driving deforestation.”

Although the charcoal industry is supporting livelihoods especially in rural areas, the consequences of increased deforestation and land clearing outweigh any economic benefits, Sichilongo added.

In Zambia, deforestation has devastated supplies of food like mushrooms and wild fruits on which people and animals both depend. Forests are also a key part of protecting further climate damage as they significantly impact the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. The more woodland there is, the more carbon is removed from the air and absorbed back into wood, leaves and soil.

Cyclic trap

Cutting trees down to replace other energy sources only further compounds the impact that climate change is having on diminishing alternative energy sources, like water.

Experts have warned that weather extremes are likely to become more frequent as the world becomes warmer. The only way to lessen the possibly devastating environmental impact is to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions.

Last September, Zambian President Edgar Lungu signed the Paris Agreement, committing to reduce greenhouse emissions and combat global warming. Late last year, Environment Minister Jean Kapata also announced plans to ban charcoal burning. While a ban on charcoal would be a step towards addressing environmental threats, it offers no solution for Zambians who have no other alternative, experts argue.

Friendlier Alternatives?

Ireen Chipili is the spokesperson for the government-run Zambia Environmental Management Agency. In the absence of reliable hydro-electricity, she insists that alternative sources of energy have to be put in place first, before charcoal can be banned.

“It is an intervention, but I think as a country we need to be more broad-minded in dealing with the issue. I mean first of all we need to look at why a significant population is using charcoal,” Chipili said. “We also need to embrace other approaches of energy. We need to remove reliance on hydro power, and promote alternative sources of energy such as solar.”

Elias Chipimo, the president of the Opposition National Restoration Party, said that the country needs to invest in environmentally-friendly methods of power generation like solar and thermal power to ensure its citizens don’t have to turn to charcoal when the hydropower supply fails.

“The problem with just relying on hydro is that it’s very costly to set up the hydro infrastructure,” Chipimo said. “What we are saying, is that through this alternative energy we can actually deliver development in a sustainable way and at the same time protect the environment and that is an amazing combination which will help us with issues of load shedding (the deliberate shutdown of power) and that will help us reach out and develop sectors that have been abandoned for a very long time.”

By Joseph Hanlon

The lowest non-agricultural minimum wage, for civil servants, has fallen below $60 per month for the first time since 2006. In 2006 it was $54.50/month, but by 2014 it had risen to $98.65/mo; for 2017 it has fallen back to $59.51/mo.

Minimum wages from 1 April 2017 were approved and announced by the Council of Ministers yesterday, 18 April. There are now 16 different minimum wages, and in Meticais there were sharply different increases – only two sectors had increases above the 21.6% annual inflation rate to March and most were much below inflation. One of the lowest paid sectors, civil servants, had a 21.9% rise in their minimum wage, and workers in large gas, electricity and water companies receive a 22.3% rise in their minimum. The smallest increases in minimum wages were 5.5% for hotel workers (a new category), 5.8% for salt workers, and 6% for quarry workers. The agricultural minimum wage increases 10.4%.

But the rapid devaluation of the Metical in the past two years pushes minimum wages back to what they were a decade ago. The agricultural minimum wage falls from $99/month in 2014 to $54 in 2017. The mining minimum drops from $176/mo in 2014 to $104 now; industry falls from $145 to $89.

Attached is a special supplement with the complete minimum wage table and historic minimum wages and exchange rates, also postedhere. There is now a quite good table of government salaries (not yet updated for these changes) here.

IMF Res Rep attacks lack of debt strategy

Mozambique’s debt renegotiations have slowed down and the government has “no clear overview or strategy”, warned IMF Resident Representative Ari Aisen in two recent speeches. And he warns that “new loans for investment projects are being contracted” without full discussion, including a $157 million Chinese export credit to fund the long-delayed digital migration project. The talks were to the donor coordination platform on 6 April and the US-Mozambique Chamber of Commerce on 12 April.

Aisen praises the cut to bread and fuel subsidies, and demand further cuts, including to the electricity subsidy. And he notes there is still a “substantial accumulation of arrears to suppliers (e.g. oil companies) and VAT refund.” And he warns of fiscal problems in the large state companies. In his speeches, made before the new minimum wages were announced, Aisen specifically called for “containing the expansion of the wage bill,” but the civil service minimum wage has been increased by the rate of inflation.

Voter registration delayed to January

As expected, electoral registration has been delayed until January 2018, in order not to conflict with the national population census 1-15 August 2017, the National Elections Commission (CNE) announced on 12 April. Because that is during the rainy season, it is likely that the registration will only take place in the municipalities which will vote in local elections on 10 October 2018. There are presently 53 municipalities with elected mayors and assemblies, but that number is likely to be increased as a result of government-Renamo negotiations on decentralization. The electoral law says the CNE must set the number of local assembly members six months before the election, and that is based on the  number of registered voters in each municipality. Processing and checking the electoral role takes up to two months. That means in practice registration must be completed by mid-February 2018.

National elections will be in October 2019 and there will have to be a national registration before that.

The election laws set the time frames. Municipal elections must be announced 18 months in advance, and within 60 days of the announcement (3 June) provincial elections commissions must be in place and in a further 30 days (3 July) district commissions must be in place. In agreeing to participate in 2014 national elections, Renamo was allowed to make major changes to the electoral law, and it opted to substantially increase the number of paid party people involved.

Each provincial and district commission consists of 15 members – 3 chosen by Frelimo Party, 2 by Renamo, 1 by the MDM (Mozambique Democratic Movement) and 9 from civil society. A total of 945 people (Maputo city does not have a separate provincial elections commission) for the present 53 municipalities. In addition there is an election secretariat STAE (Secretariado Tecnico de Administracao Eleitoral) which actually does the work. Each has a director, 2 deputy directors, 3 heads of sectors, 6 deputy sector heads and 6 technical staff – 18 people, or 1134 staff. Of those in STAE, 12 are appointed by parties (6 Frelimo, 4 Renamo, 2 MDM). Thus there are posts for 567 Frelimo-named people, 378 Renamo, and 189 MDM.

CNE spokesperson Paulo Cuinica said the CNE’s estimate is that preparing the elections will cost 970 million meticais ($15 mn), but the government has informed the CNE that so far only 650 million meticais is available. The CNE hopes that donors will provide further money. The next step is organising office space, vehicles and equipment for the election commissions and STAEs.

It doesn’t matter how much sense it makes to ordinary Zimbabweans: Zimbabwe will not formally adopt the rand, the central bank governor says.

John Mangudya has told the state-controlled Sunday Mail that he’s ruling out “rand adoption”.

Here are his reasons:

Zimbabwe uses the rand already

In theory this is true: you just don’t see the rand very much these days.

Mangudya says the rand has been part of the multi-currency basket since 2009 (other currencies supposed to be accepted in major supermarkets include British pounds, Botswana pula and Chinese yuan).

“We continued to use it [the rand] until such a time when some unscrupulous dealers started rejecting it,” he told the paper.

The reason why the rand stopped being welcome in Zimbabwe – certainly in the capital, perhaps less in Bulawayo – was two-fold: the rand lost value so there were quarrels over the exchange rate of the day and Zimbabwe brought in bond coins, which meant there was much less need for rand coins as change.

The rand will get “externalised” too

The authorities have been laying a fair amount of blame for Zimbabwe’s ongoing cash crunch on people, both local and foreign, “externalising” hard cash.

The definition of that includes retailers buying goods from outside Zimbabwe for sale inside the country, apparently.

Mangudya says there’s no guarantee that won’t happen to the rand. “What guarantee do we have that if we adopt it as our major currency it won’t suffer the same fate of externalisation and hoarding? Worse still, it only takes a few hours to reach South Africa,” he said.

What’s really important for Zimbabwe is local production

Finally! However much the authorities bluster on about hoarders and externalisers of hard currency, the main reason for Zimbabwe’s cash squeeze is that local production is low.

“We have always said that the fundamental problem of this economy is not about currency but localised production, stimulating exports and discouraging imports of finished products at all cost,” the central bank chief told the Sunday Mail.

Mangudya did not discuss the reasons why local production is so low.

Some of those are to do with high labour costs, very little foreign investment from outsiders worried about indigenisation and how they’ll get their money out of the country.

But the lack of local production is a huge issue and not one that on its own the rand will be able to sort out.

Source: News24

By Meggie Morris

After years of relying on food handouts, Zimbabwe expects this year to have a substantial maize harvest. But the government must make the crop more attractive to farmers to further ease the perennial hunger problem.

For the first time in almost two decades, Zimbabwe will produce enough maize to be able to export the grain, the country’s Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa said on Friday.

“Indications from the areas I have toured to date suggest that we are headed for a bumper harvest,” Mnangagwa said at a meeting in Zimbabwe’s capital Harare.

Thanks largely to above-average rainfall in the 2016/2017 season and a government-funded initiative providing crop inputs to farmers, the projected maize yield will be upward of two million tons, the vice president said.

The so-called “targeted command agriculture” scheme is a nation-wide policy that provided Zimbabwe’s farmers with crop inputs, such as seed, chemicals and fertilizer, in order to plant maize ahead of the planting season late last year.

The scheme encouraged farmers to prioritize the country’s staple crop over commercial crops, like tobacco, that have a higher profit margin.

Out of the woods

The good news comes as Zimbabwe emerges from the region’s worst drought in at least two decades. The crippling famine affected more than a quarter of the country’s population.

Last year, President Robert Mugabe declared a state of emergency in many rural areas hit by the drought that also affected other southern African countries, including Zambia, Malawi and South Africa.

Earlier this year, after boreholes had dried up, dams depleted and tens of thousands of cattle were lost due to poor rainfall, Zimbabwe was then devastated by floods that swept through the southern parts of the country, compounding its problems.

The United Nations, which has been leading efforts to ease food insecurity in the former breadbasket of southern Africa, said that despite ongoing challenges Zimbabwe is now out of the woods.

“I would say, frankly speaking, there may be elements of food insecurity but there is no hunger,” said Bishow Parajuli, the UN resident coordinator in Zimbabwe. “We were facing lots of challenges when the drought came in, but the pro-activeness of the government and strong partnership addressed all issues of famine and hunger. Of course there is food insecurity, malnutrition issues and that is what we are working on at the moment. “

A new dilemma

After years of trying to figure out how to best import provisions, Zimbabwe is now facing new food challenges.

“Last October we were talking about the logistics of importing maize,” said Basil Nyabadza, the chairman of the Agricultural Rural Development Authority board. “Today, six months later, we are talking about to store grain produced in Zimbabwe.”

Nyabadza said the government must look beyond outsourcing food security, and towards the economic development of Zimbabwe’s own farmers and crops.

Encouraging farmers to stick with maize

The government now needs to find ways to make maize production more attractive to more of the country’s farmers, says Paul Zacharia, the executive director of the Zimbabwe Farmers Union.

Although Zimbabwe has currently pegged local maize at $390 USD (365 euros) per metric ton, the price has not helped to attract farmers to the crop. Unless maize farming remains subsidized under the targeted command agriculture scheme, and the government starts paying farmers on time, farmers will stick to cash crops like tobacco and peas, Zacharia added.

“It is business. By default many, many farmers would be producing maize – if it means I am going to make money out of maize, then I am going to grow maize,” he said. “But if peas is paying me, out of the returns from my peas I can buy maize for a whole year and still continue to grow high value crops.”

To capitalize on this season’s projected maize haul, initiatives like targeted command agriculture should be implemented to maintain momentum, Zimbabwe’s vice president said.

“Going forward, it is vital that we deliberately develop strategies to enhance productivity by surpassing the tonnage achieved in the 2016/2017 summer planting season,” Mnangagwa said.

Columbus Mavhunga contributed to this article

Air Peace has condemned the attacks on its staff by some passengers in Abuja, Lagos, Calabar and other parts of the country.

The airline in a statement issued by its Corporate Communications Manager, Chris Iwarah, on Friday, warned that it would no longer condone members of the public endangering the lives of its workers.

It regretted that security agents had failed to halt the trend of members of the public invading airport facilities to attack airline workers.

“On Thursday, the winglet of one of our aircraft, which was being towed within the very limited space at the ramp of the Murtala Muhammed Airport in Lagos to position for departure, had a partial contact with the stabiliser of another of our aircraft.

” We subsequently declared the two aircraft unserviceable in line with our high safety standards.

“We were, therefore, compelled to adjust our schedules to close the gaps created by the two aircraft, which were scheduled to do 14 sectors.

“While we were trying to salvage the situation, some unruly passengers took the law into their own hands, preventing passengers from boarding and making it impossible for our aircraft to fly,” it said.

According to the statement, in Abuja, a former top government official, whose flight returned to Abuja when it could not land in Enugu due to the closure of the airport at 7pm, refused to disembark and incited others to join him in doing so.

The airline said the aircraft was eventually detained overnight in Abuja.

It said, “The action of the former federal lawmaker and other unruly passengers in our different stations worsened the already difficult schedule we were making effort to save.

“Some flights we were prepared to operate despite the challenge we were facing, were eventually cancelled.

“While we were making effort to resolve the challenge with the decision to commence our operations very early on Friday, a truck operated by Skyway Aviation Handling Company rammed into another of our aircraft at the Benin Airport and the aircraft was again declared unserviceable.”

The airline said that the aircraft involved in the Benin incident was scheduled to do seven sectors, including the Abuja-Benin service.

It said: “Given the development, we had no choice than to cancel our Abuja-Benin service and asked those who were willing to reschedule for Saturday to do so, while others should be immediately refunded.

“Some passengers, who were to fly with us from Abuja to Benin, however, went violent. They attacked our staff in Abuja and almost killed our duty manager.

“It took the intervention of Air Force personnel, who were reportedly called in by the airport authorities, to rescue our duty manager from the mob.

“But that did not prevent the passengers from destroying our facilities. The menacing passengers also prevented others from boarding their own flights, thereby complicating the situation.

“In Lagos, some other passengers attacked and almost killed our station manager. Also in Calabar, unruly passengers had an unchallenged day, preventing our aircraft from flying.”

The airline said it was surprising all the attacks could take place at the nation’s airports, a high security environment, without any challenge from security agents.

“The situation has, therefore, left us with no choice than to resort to our right of self-defence to prevent our staff from being killed.

“We can no longer tolerate unruly passengers maiming our staff simply because we have chosen to provide service in a very challenging environment.

” Security agencies must, therefore, rise to the occasion before our staff, who are also people’s children and parents, are killed.

“This is the least the government can do to prevent unpatriotic citizens from bringing the few surviving airlines in the country down,” it said.

NAN

By Thom Chiumia

Malawi President Peter Mutharika has appointed Foreign Affairs Principal Secretary Dalitso Kabambe as new Governor of the Reserve Bank of Malawi (RBM).

Kabambe replaces Charles Chuka whose contract has expired.

A statement dated April 21, 2017 signed by Chief Secretary to the Government Lloyd Muhara says the appointment “is with immediate effect .”

Says the statement: ” His Excellency Professor Arthur Peter Mutharika, President of the Republic of Malawi, in exercise of the powers vested in him by DSection 6 of the Reserve Bank of Malawi (Amendment) Act of 2010, has appointed Dr Dalitso Kabambe, to the position of Governor of the Reserve Bank of Malawi.”

According to RBM sources, Chuka ‘s contract has not been renewed because of his reluctance to play around with bank rates and inflation figures just to construct a cosmetic picture of the government that is ably performing to impress donors.

Economist Kabambe once worked as budget director in the Ministry of Finance during the tenure of late president Bingu wa Mutharika.

He also oversaw part of the Cashgate era , looting at Capital Hill and several other illegal activities involving billions of kwachas from public funds.

Kabambe was replaced by Paul Mphwiyo when he was moved as director in Ministry of Foreign Affairs before being promoted as PS.

OPINIONBy James Wire Lunghabo

An article was published in Daily Monitor (March 14, 2017) about Butaleja District residents rejecting a Shs26b project. Before anyone can jump to conclusions and call these residents all sorts of names, it is important to realise that short of following recommended procedures when dealing with communities, even well-intentioned projects are likely never to see the light of day.

The Lwoba-Bwirya Irrigaton Scheme is located in the outlying areas of the Doho Rice Scheme, which was renovated a few years ago as Phase One.

The Phase Two involves upgrading the outlying rice schemes. Some of the benefits of this intervention are improved water management and increased yields.

In the second half of 2016, the Butaleja District administration begun pushing for the implementation of the second phase following readiness on the part of central government and the donor agency.

The approach taken by the authorities was crucial in shaping people’s perceptions. With very little information being put out about the planned project, the farmers were merely informed to get ready for the works.

The lack of clarity of issues gave room for the usual detractors to step in and fill the void.

Due to the guarded manner the district administration and some political leaders took when releasing information, the affected farmers became apprehensive hence making them suspicious of the intentions.

Matters were made worse by the previous intention to sell off the rice scheme to an unindentified investor in 2016. It took a concerted effort of multiple stakeholders to stop this. So, once bitten, twice shy.

At this juncture, one can safely conclude that the project has stalled. But why?

This gives us lessons to learn when it comes to the implementation of community projects. There are factors necessary for success of such initiatives and these include the following.

Engaging the right approach: Communities can be viewed from a deficit or a strength perspective. The former dwells on what is lacking while the latter focuses on what is going well.

For such a community of farmers, even when they may have shortcomings, it helps to approach them from the view of boosting what they are already doing well with a view of making it better. This is likely to ease acceptability, and steer them into addressing the shortcomings.

Community Readiness: The success of new initiatives hinges a lot on community readiness. Many times, while the government or donor may take their time to get ready, the expectation is that the recipients will always be ready to come on board. This is not the case, especially when you put their experience with previous projects into perspective.

Governance: There needs to be proper procedures in order to win the confidence of all the stake holders. Expecting the farmers to simply nod in acceptance when they have not been put in the know is wishful thinking. How are decisions made? By whom? Who is accountable and for what? What decisions shall be made and by who? The lack of clarity on governance was a key bone of contention.

Sense of co-ownership: Communities enjoy feeling part of the initiative if it is to be a success. The tendency of a few people in positions of responsibility tagging projects as “My Project” only breeds contempt. The administrators should know this better.

The jolt in project implementation has been escalated by the local politics pitting various players against each other. As a result, a lot of the noise is now focused on political ego massaging. This is unlikely to yield positive results in the near future.

The best way forward is for the district administration to step back from the current approach and come up with a new way.

The new approach should include the following:

– Publicising the project plan in its entirety leaving no stone unturned. This could be done through meetings with the farmers and their local leadership structures. Once there is clarity on what the project entails, then resistance is likely to melt away.

– The language used needs to change. There needs to be a switch from the combative authoritative language that belittles the farmers to an all-embracing tone.

– Integrate non-political forces in the engagement process. There are numerous non-political yet highly respected people whose word commands respect and belief. These can be utilised as project champions.

– Get the politicians especially Members of Parliament and the district chairman, to bury the hatchet and agree to cooperate.

In a recent arbitration meeting chaired by the Minister for Water and Environment, Mr Sam Cheptoris, it was agreed that the unwilling parties in the project be respected.

Only the areas that showed full reception for this investment are to be considered going forward.

It is sad though to find that a well-meaning project has been rejected by a section of farmers who stood to gain much more out of it all because of poor political guidance.

By Emmanuel Ntirenganya

The Rwanda Defence Force (RDF) has intensified the fight against the fall armyworm that has devastated farmers’ crops, especially maize.

The pest has left farmers around the country worried about their harvests fuelling concerns about the country’s food security in the near future if the invasion is not contained fast enough.

The men and women in uniform, together with local leaders, yesterday, took the fight to Niboye Sector, Kicukiro District in Kigali.

The acting defence and military spokesperson, Lt Col René Ngendahimana, told The New Times that RDF’s intervention is nationwide.

He said that the Force joined the operation after realising that the pest poses a threat to national food security.

“It is our duty to deter such threats,” he said.

Joseph Twagirimana, a farmer in Niboye Sector, had his 2.5-ha cornfield attacked by the pest.

The father of two said he has faint hope for a harvest following the invasion of the armyworm caterpillar.

“Maize crops normally reach maturity in about three months, but as you can see, they have not yet developed the tassels,” he told The New Times from his field in Gatare cell, yesterday.

“I am suspecting I’ve lost up to 75 per cent of my investments,” Twagirimana said.

Nonetheless, the farmer was full of praise for the RDF.

“First, I thank God for having given us good leadership, a leadership that always thinks about the people. That the military has joined us in the fight against this attack is not to be taken for granted. We are very grateful to them,” he said.

He called on responsible institutions to conduct research into such outbreaks with view to ascertain the sources and causes of such pests and devising preventive measures.

“We apply fertiliser and do all we can to improve our produce,” he said. “But, as farmers, we are always vulnerable to such pests. We have no idea how to prevent them”.

Eric Ndabarishe, an agronomist for Niboye, said about eight hectares of maize in the sector had been affected and by the armyworm.

In Rwanda, the pest was first reported late February in Mushishito in Nyamagabe District.

And by March 13, it had spread to all the nine districts in Southern Province, according to Rwanda Agriculture Board (RAB).

In the previous months, the armyworm had been reported in several eastern and southern African countries.

On April 15, 2017, Rwanda Defence Force airlifted some 4,500 liters of the pyrethrum EWC+, a locally-made pesticide, to different parts of the country as the battle against the pest gathered momentum.

Rwanda Air Force choppers delivered pesticides to Karongi, Huye and Rwamagana districts, in Western, Southern and Eastern provinces, respectively.

But an army of officers, men and women of the RDF has also joined with residents, local leaders and experts across the country in spraying the pesticide to the affected plantations.

Besides maize, the pest is known to attack sorghum, wheat and rice.

All these crops are key foodstuff in Rwanda.

Horizon Sopyrwa/Agropy, a Ministry of Defence-affiliated firm, the manufactures of pyrethrum EWC+ has capacity to produce up to 4,000 litres of the pesticide a day, according to officials.

One to two litres of the pesticide can be used to spray a hectare.

Figures show that average maize produce per hectare had increased from about two tonnes in 2008 to five tonnes presently thanks to the government’s interventions, including fertiliser and subsidies.

But there are fears that these gains might be rolled back in the wake of the armyworm attack.

The pest multiplies quickly, experts say. An adult moth lays eggs on the surface of leaves which hatch after 2-3 days. The resultant larvae (caterpillar) feed on leaves causing severe damage to a crop.

According to information from the Ministry of Agriculture and Animal Resources, the pest has been reported in 108 sectors (of the country’s 416 sectors) in 23 districts (out of 30 countrywide), attacking some 15,699 hectares of maize and sorghum.

The affected area represents 24.7 per cent of the total area on which maize and sorghum are grown countrywide.