SUBSISTENCE farmers along Kwaifa River in Ward Three of Malaita Province are seeing a widespread destruction of their sweet potato crop by some rare insects.
One of the farmers, Michael Wale said he discovered a rare occurrence in his food garden last week and that was the leaves of his two-month-old mounds of sweet potato crops have turned brown and appeared folded and twisted.
Mr Wale said the insects responsible for the destruction appear to only target the leaves and vines of his sweet potatoes.
He said other farmers in the ward have also seen similar destruction to their sweet potato gardens.
Mr Wale said the worrying thing is that the insects may destroy the local variety of sweet potatoes to extinction, which will greatly impact on local food security.
“It is my first time to see how disastrous these small insects are to sweet potato leaves and vines.
“These insects attack the kumara leaves and vines, turning them brown as if they have been burnt from heat. This is scary and not a normal occurrence for farmers here.
“If these destructive insects increase in numbers and continue to target potato gardens, we, the people who depend much on gardening for our survival and sweet potato as our main staple food, will find ourselves in a food crisis,” Mr Wale said
Mr Wale then called on the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock (MAL) in Auki to visit their gardens to assess the destruction caused by the insects.
He said urgent action must be taken by the National Government through MAL to address this problem before it spreads throughout Malaita and the rest of the country.
By SOLOMON LOFANA
Solomon Star, Auki
