Action mondiale pour la lutte contre la chenille légionnaire d'automne

Southern Africa and China share experiences on FAW monitoring and forecasting

Partnering for sustainable management of fall armyworm
15 March 2021

Integrated pest management (IPM) of fall armyworm (FAW) across regions and countries is an essential step towards reducing infestations and crop losses significantly and sustainably. 

That, in turn, will contribute to greater food security and livelihoods for producersFAO Representative in Malawi, Zhijun Chen, told more than 50 participants during the first in a series of webinars where Southern African countries and China are sharing experiences in FAW monitoring and forecasting 

The successful implementation of the Global Action (GA) on Fall Armyworm Control will depend on scaling up the wide adoption of effective integrated pest management options, especially at the smallholder farmers level,” said Chen, during the 3 March 2021 webinar, hosted by the Southern Africa Subregional office (FAO SFS) in collaboration with the Plant Protection Institution of Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CAAS). The webinar was organized to allow exchanging of information, lessons learnt and best practices in FAW management, particularly using IPM. 

FAW monitoring in real time and early warning for timely action against the pest is a key pillar of IPM that enables evidence-based and timely action.”  

Participants came from academic institutions, research centres and from governments in Botswana, China, Malawi, South Africa, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. They provided an overview of the pest’s current status in Southern Africa, including the FAW monitoring and early warning system experience in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region; and of remote sensing technologies in crop-pest monitoring. 

Malawi is one of eight demonstration countries for the implementation of the GA in Southern Africa. FAO Malawi will work with 11 pilot countries in the subregion to lead the implementation and demonstration of IPM technologies in the sustainable management of the plant pest. 

In the past five years, farmers in Malawi have struggled with FAW in their cereal crops, particularly in maize. Infestations are worsened by frequent, prolonged dry weather. FAW infestations have been reported in all districts of the country, expanding as the growing season progressesFor example, in early January 2021, infestations were generally low, ranging 0-10 percent. Yet within a month, that changed with most areas reporting infestation ranging from 20 to over 45 percent.  

 

The webinars are part of FAO’s three-year GA initiative which was launched in December 2019 to scale-up international and national actions to sustainably control and halt the spread and negative impacts of FAW worldwide. The GA provides a platform for global, regional and national collaboration in monitoring, early warning and IPM technologies, with the goal of reducing yield losses and lowering the risk of further spread of FAW. Malawi is one of the eight demonstration countries of the GA.

 

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