MWANZA, Aug. 8 -- FARMERS have been urged to step up control of sweet potato weevils and viral diseases that can wipe out up to 90 per cent of harvests, posing a serious threat to food security and farmers incomes.

A Crop Research Officer at the Tanzania Agricultural Research Institute (TARI), Ms Mwanjia Ngangambe, said sweet potato weevils attack storage roots, causing heavy production losses.

“The larvae bore into storage roots, reducing both the quality and quantity of the harvest,” she said.

She explained that the pest creates dark punctures and tunnels filled with waste inside the roots, making them bitter, unmarketable and unfit for consumption.

According to Ms Ngangambe, severe weevil infestations can cause farmers ...