The Minister of State in charge of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture, Dr Nurah Gyiele, has said government has procured chemicals to annihilate any fall armyworm that will resurface this year.

He noted that procurement and distribution of the chemicals takes time and for that reason, government found it prudent to make adequate preparation ahead.

Dr Nurah, said stocks of chemicals are ready to be distributed to the regions to fight the disease from the onset in case it surfaces.

He said this in an interview with Adehye FM's Elisha Adarkwah on the sidelines of a review workshop organised by the Ministry of Food and Agriculture on the implementation of 2017 and preparation for 2018 Planting for Food and Jobs campaign held in Kumasi on Friday, 23 March 2018.

"We've also made adequate arrangement for the fall armyworm in case it surfaces," he said.

"It's a disease you can't tell when it comes, but we've made adequate preparations in terms of stocks of chemicals which we identified from 2017 that we are ready to send to the regions also to get prepared. Once they start planting and the crops start germinating, if any army worm surfaces we'll annihilate it from the onset," he added.

He indicated that the “normal good practice is [that] even when you fight and succeed this year, you should stock some of the chemicals ready for next year and not wait every time for the symptoms to come before asking for the chemicals".

He called on farmers to be vigilant and report cases of fall armyworm to the ministry in case they find signs of the worms in their farms.