Farmers around Uganda are in a planting season. So as farmers plant crops we have decided to bring to you the pests which destroy our crops and how they could be fought. Even if farmers plant high quality products but fail to fight the pests, they stand to lose their produce. The following are some of the pests/insects that destroy our crops-
Beetles, ants, bees, flies, butterflies, grasshoppers, tiny worms like nematodes, multi-cellular organisms found in the soils, and pathogens. Pathogens include bacteria, viruses, fungi or parasites. Parasites sometimes can not be seen by naked houses.
Pathogens can infect humans, animals and plants. Pathogens include rust, smut, stalk rot, blight, common scab, canker, leaf spot, bacterial wilt and maize streak.
Small and big animals (rodents) such as rats, mice, birds, bats and flying foxes, bats, wild boar, pigs, monkeys and baboons also damage our crops. Farmers need to use insecticides, acaricide and miticide for the protection of their crops.