Alien Invasive Plants in South Africa are a problem
Scarce water resources in South Africa are being threatened by alien invasive plants. Many of the methods used to try control the alien invasive plants have proved ineffective. What is needed is a cost effective solution that offers the best chance of eliminating regrowth.
The invasive species problem is extensive with 198 of the approximate 9000 introduced plants into South Africa declared as invasive. About 10% of South Africa is covered by these alien invasive plants and the growth is happening at an exponential rate.
In neighboring Botswana and areas on Namibia huge tracts of land have been made non arable as a result.
The alien invasive species problem has been recognised at South African Government level and a number of interventions have been implemented. The largest of these is the work for water programme.
The jury is out as to whether this programme is effective with quite frankly mixed results been reported in the various provinces. The programme uses a mixture of mechanical methods which mainly include tree or bush felling or burning. In some ares the programme uses chemical methods where supposedly environmentally safe chemicals are used and there is also a biological programme which targets specific species with specie specific insects or diseases. It has been reported that 76 biocontrol agents have been released in South Africa against 40 weed species to date.
The South African Government has introduced legislation where it classifies the various alien invader plant species into three categories. Different actions are required dependent on which category of alien invader the plant falls into.
For the private landowner or farmer the problem is exacerbated because they have a legal obligation to control certain of these species, all of which comes at a great cost.
This si why retired farmer Dick Venables designed and patented a range of mechanical devices to resolve the problem. He has received numerous awards for his innovation.
For the removal of alien invasive plants with single stems he has a tractor mounted device (Tractor Operated Machine - single stem) to make short work of the problem and he has a separate device for the removal of multi stemmed alien invader species (Tractor Operated Machine - Multi stem).
Venables is personally dead against using chemical applications for two reasons. Firstly he has a vastly reduced lung capacity as a result of inhaling chemicals used by a neighboring farmer and secondly he questions the efficacy of the solution as the farmer or land owner still has to remove the dead plant matter. He maintains his solutions offer a quicker and more cost effective solution.
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