Voracious Sena caterpillar may soon invade paddy cultivations, warns MONLAR

By Rathindra Kuruwita

Sena caterpillars would destroy paddy cultivation unless the agricultural authorities took steps to control the pest, the Movement for Land and Agricultural Reform (MONLAR) Moderator, Chinthaka Rajapakshe told The Island yesterday.

Rajapakshe said the governments, since 2018, had done nothing to counter the threat posed by the Sena caterpillars, which were now destroying crops in the Uva, Eastern and North Western provinces; that the Department of agriculture was again proposing to destroy the pest with highly toxic pesticides.

 “The Sena caterpillar first made its appearance in the world in 2016 in Africa and then spread rapidly around the world. It’s mainly associated with attacking maize crops but it is not a picky eater. Scientists say they like to feed on the leaves and stems of more than 350 plant species, including rice, sorghum, sugarcane and rwheat. Imagine the devastation it would cause if they started attacking paddy.”

Rajapakshe said that successive governments had been promoting mono-cropping in Sri Lanka and that it had made it easy for pests like Sena caterpillars to spread. Maize was mainly planted as a key ingredient of poultry feed. As the Sri Lankan poultry industry had grown over the years, its development has resulted in an increase in the extent of land under maize cultivation. A decrease in maize production can also affect the poultry industry.

 “The Department of Agriculture is promoting the use of highly toxic pesticides to eradicate the caterpillar. We have been doing this since 2018 but the caterpillar is back. We only spend colossal amounts of money, pollute the environment and increase farmers’ indebtedness. Instead, we should use more sustainable solutions like the push-pull’ approaches for controlling insect pests and weeds. Push-pull’ is about mixing, into a field of crops, plants that repel insect pests (‘push’) and planting, around a crop, diversionary trap plants that attract the pests (‘pull’).”