The fall armyworm had become a complex pest to deal with.

NATURAL disasters have resulted in an escalation in costs accrued by governments and aid agencies as they try to respond to the calamities, the Food and Agriculture Organisation’s sub-regional coordinator for southern Africa, David Phiri, has said.
Phiri told The Financial Gazette last week that the disasters were becoming more frequent and more severe in intensity.
“As a result, the situation is now different in countries that were used to having, say, droughts every five years or so because now you have floods and droughts every two to three years and in the case of southern Africa, we had a drought that lasted two years and three in others. This was not so common before,” Phiri said.
“We are all aware of the impact of natural hazards to our countries. We are conscious of escalating costs of damage and loss after disaster events,” he added.
Zimbabwe has experienced droughts in the past, but last year experienced floods which wrecked infrastructure and almost ruined the agricultural season.
There was also an invasion of the fall armyworm, which threatened harvests.
Last year, the sub region was dealing with its worst drought in 35 years, which ended with almost 40 million people in need of food assistance.
Now it is confronted with a range of trans-boundary crop and animal pests and diseases.
Most countries in the southern Africa region, including Zimbabwe, have been repeatedly attacked by outbreaks of fall armyworm, tomato leaf miner, highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI), red locust and maize lethal necrosis.
Foot and mouth disease (FMD), African swine fever (ASF), peste des petits ruminants (PPR), rabies, rift valley fever (RFV), and anthrax, among others, are endemic in most countries in the region.
Phiri said FAO’s warnings of impending disasters were not always heeded by governments and donors.
With about 70 percent of Zimbabwe’s rural population relying on agriculture for food and incomes, unexpected crises in the sector, like erratic rainfall during the agricultural season or sudden rises in food or input prices, are a threat to the country’s development.
Since May 2017, the region has been on high alert following reports of HPAI outbreaks in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Zimbabwe and South Africa. The increase in the incidence of especially trade-sensitive trans-boundary animal diseases and zoonoses threatens the economies, livelihoods and food and nutrition security of over 40 percent of the population that depends on livestock for their livelihood.
To compound the problems, most countries have outdated contingency plans for the most important diseases in the region.
According to the United Nations Development Programme, drought is considered by many to be the most complex and least understood of all natural disasters, affecting more people than any other hazard. It is one of the most chronic natural disasters in southern Africa in terms of social, economic and environmental aspects.
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