The FAO alert warns that a fall armyworm outbreak in Asia could threaten the food security and livelihoods of millions of rice and maize small-scale farmers as it is “highly likely to spread further from India, with South East Asia and South China considered to be most at risk”.
Describing its experience in rolling 30 tech-driven projects in Africa to fight the spread of the devastating insect, FAO highlights five key features of an effective response in a press release.
14 August 2018: The Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO) has issued an alert about the spread of the fall armyworm (FAW) to India – the first time the pest has been detected in Asia – offering its expertise to Asian governments based on its experience in supporting African countries that have been battling a FAW invasion since early 2016.
The FAO warns that a FAW outbreak in Asia could threaten the food security and livelihoods of millions of rice and maize small-scale farmers as it is “highly likely to spread further from India, with South East Asia and South China most at risk.”
Effective FAW response includes providing policy and technical advice about best management options for smallholder farmers.
In the latest FAW attack in Africa, which was detected in early 2016, the insect had quickly spread across the region by early 2018, with all but ten countries reporting infestations that affected millions of hectares of maize and sorghum. In a press release, FAO describes it efforts to roll out 30 tech-driven projects to fight the spread of the devastating insect that included: bringing together experts to share knowledge and experiences on sustainable FAW management; developing tools to build early warning, monitoring and response mechanisms; and supporting countries to mitigate pest damage, develop action plans and policies, and train extension workers and farmers.
Offering its expertise to Asian governments, FAO highlights five key features of an effective response, including: implementing the Fall Armyworm Monitoring and Early Warning System (FAMEWS) to monitor, analyze and produce early warnings, including risk to food security; producing accurate estimates of potential crop loss, based on the FAMEWS data and estimates of yield loss due to FAW; providing policy and technical advice about best management options for farmers, especially smallholder farmers; rolling out a continent-wide programme of farmer education and communication; and maintaining technical backstopping and coordination efforts at country, sub-regional, regional and global levels in order to continue enabling member countries, farmer organizations and individual farmers to manage the pest. [FAO Press Release on FAW Asia Alert] [FAO Press Release on Launch of FAW Monitoring App] [FAO Website on FAW Response] [SDG Knowledge Hub Story on the Role of ICT Innovations in Attracting Youth to Agriculture]