PICTURE: Rice Farmers in the fields
Kirinyaga County government has launched a three-week pilot programme to control a new migratory rice pest that has been ravaging rice crops at the Mwea irrigation scheme in Kirinyaga. The programme aims at stopping the spread of an invasive snail commonly known as the “Golden Apple Snail”.
The joint action plan led by the County Agriculture extension services team and the National government officers has been formed to deal with the snail menace. The Ministry of Agriculture through the Pest Control Products Board (PCBP) has provided 2000 liters of Biograde 300 SL adequate to cover 8,000 acres of rice paddy on the three-cycle spray.
This is in addition to 40 sprayers, and 40 PPEs full kit to support the pilot control exercise in Mwea.
The governor said the pilot programme will be undertaken in selected farms using the organic pesticide.
She said the successful implementation of the pilot programme will prepare for possible upscaling of exercise in the whole scheme during the ratoon and double crop seasons.
Experts from the Ministry of Agriculture say that the snails mainly damage direct wet-seeded rice and transplanted rice up to 30 days old. Thus, for effective control pesticide is applied immediately after transplanting, with repeats applications at 7 and 14 days.