Johannesburg - Standing in his vast maize field, on a mountainside next to the Limpopo village of Ga-Sekgopo, 75-year-old Johannes Malesa was at a loss.
His entire maize crop has been ravaged by the dreaded Fall Armyworm (FAW) which hit the country at the beginning of this year.
Malesa’s two maize fields are among hundreds in the area that have been affected. For a community that solely relies on farming for its food and income, this is a huge setback.
The area, mainly made-up of subsistence farmers, is in Greater Letaba near Tzaneen.
In the heat of the Limpopo sun, The Star team trekked up the lush green mountainside next to the village with Malesa and other subsistence farmers to assess the damage the FAW has inflicted on maize fields in the area.
With mealie meal being the staple diet for almost half of South Africa’s population, the FAWs’ damage could have a devastating effect, not just on the large farms, but for small-scale farmers who supply maize to their families and community.
As we climbed higher, Malesa stopped us outside a fence of wood, thorn bushes and wire. He opened a little hidden gate and we entered his first field.
The damage hit us like a ton of bricks.
The leaves of the mealie stalks were completely eaten away, and where the mealies should have been growing, there was just remnants of corn.
Three years ago, Malesa could harvest between five and eight 80kg bags of maize from his two plots, but then the drought hit.
“We’d get some rain in October and we’d be hopeful that we could plant, the maize would start growing and we’d have hope for a good harvest. Then, suddenly there would be no rain and all the crops would die, it was devastating,” Malesa said.
This planting season, rain began to fall and they were able to plant by November and December last year.
“We all thought it was the end of our problems and things had changed. There was real hope and we thought we could start recovering from the drought and then the worms came,” he said, shaking his head.
Tearing open one of the maize stalks, Malesa picked out three large FAWs. He took a rock and crushed them.
“There’s nothing we can do, we are clueless about how we will solve this problem and get rid of these worms, they are killing everything. Without this maize, how can we feed our families?” he asked.
Malesa, who has a family of eight, including several grandchildren, said he was constantly worried about how he’s going to feed them because of the FAW infestation.
“I am the sole provider, there’s no one else to help me and I am not the only person who’s affected.
“Everyone here is having the same problem. I have a relative in Mpumalanga who also has it at his farm,” Malesa said.
During a good season, he explained, they would harvest, peel and clean the mealies and take them to a nearby maize company where they traded the mealies for an equal amount of mealie meal which would last his family through the year.
“Normally this time of year, the mealies are almost fully grown. Now there is nothing growing and we can’t trade for mealie meal, which is what we mainly eat,” he said.
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Although planting mealies always comes with challenges, such as porcupines, wild pigs, monkeys and apes breaking through the fences and eating the growing mealies, Malesa reiterated there had never been anything quite like this before.
For half an hour, Malesa went around to green stalks and opened the maize plants. He looked for FAW that he could get rid of in a bid to put a stop to the infestation affecting future crops.
During the drought, Malesa said, those who grow maize at their homes were still able to do so because water was still accessible.
“They could at least water their plants and still grow food using water from the taps and the boreholes,” he said, pointing towards the village.
“But for those who grew here on the mountain, there was no way for us to get any water to our fields.
“We could only buy maize from the shops, which is very expensive, and living on a social grant doesn’t go far, it only covers basic expenses.”
Malesa said houses in the area which had maize plots were also badly affected by the FAW, stressing this wasn’t just a concern for the maize fields.
As we walked up the steep rocky slope towards the second maize farm, he recalled previous times that maize crops
had been threatened in the village.
The last time the village saw a similar problem was in 1968 and even then, it wasn’t this bad.
It didn’t destroy the crops like this, there was still food to harvest.
He appealed to the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries to visit the area so they could understand how devastating the situation was and help them deal with it.
“If there is a powder or a medicine that can get rid of this creature, please, we ask you to help us. We need you to come here yourselves and see how bad this is, it’s serious,” he said.
Asked what he would do with the half-eaten crops, Malesa said he would just let them continue growing until they died.
“There’s no point in taking them out and starting again, because until we can get rid of the worm or until it goes away, the same thing will just keep happening,” he said.
As we hiked down, the mountainside clouds began to gather and it seemed as if the heavens were about to open, only to be blown away by gusts of wind.
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