Norway witnesses FAW Global Action on the ground in Malawi
In the maize fields of rural Malawi’s central Salima district, a high-level Norwegian delegation watches as local smallholders – both women and men – at a Farmer Field School apply botanical pesticides and physical methods to their maize crops to fight the pernicious fall armyworm (FAW): ground-level action combined with higher level technical insights that are emerging through Global Action. That is, the Global Action to Control FAW, developed by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) with support from partners, including the Government of Norway, in the southern African nation of Malawi. There, the Global Action is coming to life at the field level, through projects that focus on educating and supporting local farmers on best practices to sustainably confront FAW.
Fighting this new pest, which arrived in Malawi (and most of Africa) as recently as 2016-2017, requires approaches tailored to smallholder farmers, to protect their crops, food security and their livelihoods. That’s what the Norwegian delegation has come to Salima to witness. The delegation of senior officials from the Royal Norwegian Embassy in Malawi – including Ambassador Steinar Egil Hagen – plus representatives from Norway’s Ministries of Agriculture and Food, and Foreign Affairs respectively, have been joined by senior government and elected officials as well as technical experts from the Government of the Republic of Malawi. FAO Malawi office experts also joined the 23 January 2020 visit, aimed at directly observing the kinds of problems created by FAW, the sustainable management solutions that are being developed, validated and implemented, as well as seeing first-hand the importance of monitoring and early warning systems.
Dr. Godfrey Ching'oma, Director of Crop Development for Malawi government’s Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Water Development, emphasized the importance of the FAO-led Global Action, supported through the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (NORAD). "The Government of Malawi welcomes the Global Action on FAW, to find sustainable solutions for the management of the pest; solutions that are environmentally friendly,” said Ching'oma. Erlend Kjærnsrød, leading the Norwegian delegation, said its government is committed to supporting work to control FAW through its research institutions, including the Norwegian Institute of Bioeconomy Research (NIBIO). The institute has partnered with FAO to strengthen the monitoring and surveillance of FAW, which is now widely prevalent among major food crops in Malawi and much of Africa. Innovation and adaptive technology are priorities in Norwegian cooperation work, noted Kjærnsrød.
“Norwegian institutions have a great deal to contribute to finding solutions against FAW,” Kjærnsrød said during the visit, hosted by the Malawian Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Water Development and the District Council in Salima. Kjærnsrød added that he was pleased to see how effectively FAO is collaborating with the Malawian Ministry of Agriculture to bring farmers and researchers together to address FAW and increase food and livelihood security through sustainable actions. Capacity development in monitoring and early warning, integrated pest management (IPM), as well as phytosanitary measures are identified as core activities of the Global Action. Discussions during the field school visit included such subjects as collaboration between Norway, via NIBIO, and FAO with regard to the Fall Armyworm Monitoring and Early Warning System (FAMEWS) that incorporates weather, soil and crop condition parameters. That platform has integrated the Norwegian-developed Varsling Innen PlanteSkadegjørere (VIPS) service into the FAMEWS smartphone app, which can function offline and is available to farmers and extension workers free of charge.
Besides collecting data on FAW presence in their fields, farmers who use the app can directly receive suggestions and advice for appropriate FAW management options. As well, with the support of VIPS, farmers can make reliable forecasts of the risks from FAW arriving in their fields. Malawi is one of 23 countries seeking FAO’s support in the use of FAMEWS to tackle FAW. The visit by the Norwegian delegation has helped to highlight how FAO’s Global Action interacts with, and supports, the work of NGOs that are members of the National FAW Taskforce, noted entomologist and FAO scientist George Phiri, who is based in FAO’s Malawi office. “We see how high the prevalence of FAW has persisted in the country and how essential it is that effective and sustainable methods of responding to this situation are implemented by smallholder farmers in their own fields and from an evidence base,” said Phiri.
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