Chiredzi, (New Ziana) – Control of the Yellow Sugarcane Aphids has become the major activity for sugarcane farmers in the Lowveld, a senior Tongaat Huletts official has said.
Originally referred to as the ‘sorghum aphis’ the Sipha Flava (Hemiptera: Aphididae) is native to North and South America where it feeds on many species of grasses.
It reproduces parthenogenetically during the warm months, with sexual forms appearing in the winter. Nymphs, adults and winged alates often occur at the same time.
An agricultural technical executive with Tongaat Huletts, Pitiel Mujuru, told journalists during a tour of the sugar producer that the aphid first appeared in the Lowveld about 10 years ago.
“We did not have this in the sugar industry. Maybe it came around about 10 years ago, that’s when it started giving us a headache but it’s under control,” said Mujuru. “If not controlled, it certainly impacts on the yields, it gets to high economic thresholds that the yield would be affected.”
He said up to 40 percent of the sugar cane yield can be lost to the aphid if it is left uncontrolled to heavily infest the crop but the good news for the Lowveld is the availability of chemicals that have proven their mettle against the aphid.
“There are some chemicals that have proven to be good and we are even using aerial spraying and some out growers have reached out to the Department of Research and Specialists Services to use their drones. So there are a lot of efforts to uproot that new pest. But it’s a correct observation, its one (of) those pests giving us headaches so there is a lot of efforts going around in terms of protecting the crop,” he said.
Mujuru also gave an update on the multi-million dollar 4 000 hectare Kilimanjaro project where 700ha under sugarcane have started giving feedstock to the Tongaat Hulett’s 600 000 tonne per annum milling plants.
Some 157 farmers were allocated plots being developed and managed by Tongaat Hulett on 4 000ha of land at Hippo Valley and Triangle estates. Mujuru said the initial 700ha of the new lands put under sugarcane have been christened Empowerment Block, and is part of the 2 600ha virgin land that has so far been developed.
The scheme being developed by government with Tongaat Hulett as an anchor partner was mooted to help empower the new farmers, create employment and improve sugarcane feedstock to keep Tongaat Hullet’s two milling plants busy. The plants currently are utilizing about 75 percent of their installed capacity producing between 390 000 to 400 000 tonnes of sugar annually.
On completion, the 4 000ha Kilimanjaro Scheme is projected to yield about 480 000t of sugarcane, translating to 60 000 tonnes of sugar. In addition to creating new wealth, the scheme fits strategically well in terms of the national development strategy.
“We talk about middle income, we talk about that wealth so the project comes with that new wealth and it also creates employment. You are looking at say 1 400 new jobs of crop maintenance staff that will come with this project when it’s fully developed. Usually in our planning terms we say those employees usually “in our African set up”, normally work with about four dependents per employee to look at, the eventual dependence load of this project so you want to think of 5 600 people who will become dependent on this project when its eventually developed.
Then you look at the forward and backward linkages. Chiredzi town cannot be there without the sugar industry so there are quite a number of services that come with the sugar cane plantations,” said Mujuru.
Work began on the ground in 2019 with planning, feasibility studies and designs by the Tongaat technical team after which contractors were brought in to clear the virgin bush, building night storage dams and other irrigation water infrastructure, “So far on the 4 000 we have managed to bush clear up to 2 600ha but that’s not the crop. We went on to develop to crop establishment where we have 700ha under crop out of the 2 600ha odd cleared. From the 4 000ha we still have up to 3 300ha which we have to continue working on and establish a crop to bring this project to deliverable state in its whole scope.”
The project is expected to pay back all the capital investment by financial institutions in four years.
New Ziana
