Ghana’s agriculture sector is likely to be affected if Pangolins known locally as ‘Aprawa’ are extinct.
Pangolins feed on termites and it is estimated that each pangolin eat about 70 million termites a year.
This helps to regulate the population of termites with the potential to affect Agriculture and human activities.
Some termites eat into the taproots of seedlings immediately below the soil surface, destroying the central root portions, and fill the resulting cavities with soil. Termite damaged plants wilt and may die within a few days particularly under drought conditions.
Some termites can attack the roots of maize and sorghum, and crop plants to damage and topple the plants. Termites may also travel up through the roots into the trunk and branches, disrupt movement of nutrients and water through the vascular system resulting in death of the plant.
Therefore experts say, if the population of termites are not regulated the brunt will be on agriculture hence the need to protect Pangolins to play that natural roles.
At the commemoration of World Pangolins Day on February 17, 2018 at Bunso and Nsutem stretch of the Accra to Kumasi Highways in the Eastern region organized by AROCHA Ghana with support from USAID and the Wildlife Division of the Forestry commission, Joseph Yaw Oppong, Public Relations Manager of Wildlife division of Ghana believes extinction of pangolins may have negative impact on farming in Ghana.
“God has given this particular creature very important role to play in our environment or the ecology, Pagolins eat termites and ants. It is researched and established that one of these creatures could eat as many as 200,000 termites a day.
“It means that it control termites and ants on the farm and by nature of their crawling they are also able to dig the soil, to loosen it and support growth of plants. Without them, termites and ants can cause havoc to farming. So their role is to protect termites and insects so that farmers can have little holidays on their farms,” he said.
On his part, Emmanuel Ackom, Eastern regional Manager of AROCHA Ghana said Ghana needs to do more to protect these important species through awareness creation and enforcement of Wildlife laws.
Source: Ghana/Starrfmonline.com/103.5FM/Kojo Ansah
