By Yusupha Jobe
The alarming swarms of grasshoppers that invaded Alhagie Buya Drammeh’s garden in Ndungu Kebbeh in the North Bank Region (NBR) is on every’s lips in the village.
The rampaging swarms of insects have destroyed beyond human imagination, the cereals, and vandalising many vegetables and tree-plants at the said garden.
Grasshoppers are plant-eaters with a few species at times becoming serious pest of cereals, vegetables and pastures, especially when they swarm in their millions as locusts and destroy crops over wide areas.
Also, Grasshoppers are typically ground-dwelling insects with powerful hind-legs which allow them to escape from dangers by leaping strongly.
Alhagie Buya Drammeh’s garden in Ndungu Kebbeh
However, pertaining to the outbreak, Drammeh expressed his worries and perplexity about the grasshoppers. In a mixed feeling mood, he revealed that, the insects have over-grazed almost all the nursery beds in his garden.
Among the victims of the grasshopper invasion was Fatou Dem, who frowned at the massive destruction registered in the garden.
Madam Dem lamented that the grasshoppers have left no cereals or vegetables untouched in her nursery beds, thereby causing her a lot financial loss and waste of labour.
Expressing her feelings to Mansa Banko Online, Dem brought forth her level of frustration and desperation with the outbreak of grasshoppers. She, therefore, stressed the need for urgent intervention by the agriculture extension workers, so as to nib, this horrific situation, in the bud.
She couldn’t conclude her remarks without applauding this mainly agricultural and innovation-focused online medium, Mansa Banko Online, for the initiative.
Sainey Drammeh also scoffed at the grasshoppers menace, which she said, “is a total mess up for the forthcoming gardening session”.
Sainey opined that the destruction caused that the invasion is beyond repaired, and she used this medium to call on those with the wherewithals to come to their rescue.
Another villager Mr. Ebrima Jobe, saw the outbreak as a total failure for the garden lovers in the village. He bewailed this horrific situation, maintaining that it would inevitable traumatize the women in the village.
His reason: Because a number of these women folk do assist their husbands through their garden outputs.
However, Jobe urged the experts concerned, and well-wishers, to remedy this worrying invasion by swarms of grasshoppers, because women are at “sixes and sevens {difficult} situation” in Ndungu Kebbeh.
At the end of their media encounter, the chief victim of the insect invasion, Buya Drammeh, saluted Mansa Banko Online for the timely visit. He also expressed his desire to work with this media outlet for the featuring of his gardening activities.
