The Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) has been tasked with coordinating control and management interventions to combat the fall armyworm infestation in Africa.
Centre for Agricultural and Biosciences International sanitary and phytosanitary coordinator Dr Roger Day estimates the fall armyworm will cost Africa $3-billion in lost maize production this year.
A Stakeholders Consultation Meeting on the Fall Armyworm was held in Nairobi this week to discuss means to tackle the fall armyworm problem and the potential impact on smallholder farmers on the continent.
The fall armyworm attacks more than 80 different plant species, including maize, a food staple in sub-Saharan Africa on which more than 200-million people depend.
The female fall armyworm can lay up to 1 000 eggs at a time and can produce multiple generations very quickly, without pause, in tropical environments.
The pest has been reported in all countries in Southern Africa, except Lesotho and the island States, as well as in most of East Africa, including Burundi, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda. It has also been reported in several countries in West and Central Africa, including Benin, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ghana, Nigeria, Togo and the island nation of Sao Tome and Principe.
It is not yet clear how the pest, originally from North America, got to the African continent or how it will adapt.
“Fall armyworm is a very recently introduced pest in Africa and even the experts are unsure what its long-term impact will be,” Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa VP Joe DeVries said.
FAO assistant director-general Bukar Tijani said the organisation has the capacity to take on the responsibility of coordinating management interventions on the continent.
“The FAO has prioritised building the resilience of farmers and countries to prepare for, manage and recover from disasters, including pests and diseases.
“We need to develop and deploy, in a fast-track manner, improved drought-tolerant, disease-resistant hybrid [plant species] adapted to Africa that are also resistant to the fall armyworm,” Tijani said.
To develop and disseminate effective, more affordable and sustainable control options, research must urgently be undertaken to better understand the biology and ecology of the fall armyworm in the various African cropping systems and ecosystems and to identify its local potential enemies.