A training workshop is scheduled to take place in Abuja, Nigeria, from 5 to 10 September 2017 to strengthen ECOWAS’ Member States technical capacity to manage Spodoptera frugiperda (Fall Armyworm) outbreak in West Africa.

Since the pest  detection in Africa, FAO is making efforts to assist countries in managing the pest and preventing its spread. In July 2017, FAO organized three back-to-back meetings, focusing on coordination and South-South experts meetings as well as integrated pest management curriculum development for FAW.

Subregional training workshops are being organized in this connection and aim to enhance participants’ knowledge of the pest, phytosanitary implications and sustainable management approaches to deal with the pest in an effort to curb its impact, by promoting in this respect the use of standardized tools and methodologies to carry out different types of assessments and monitoring. The outcomes of these workshops should further consolidate the efforts being lent to provide an insight at the regional level of the pest’s effect on agricultural productivity, food security and livelihoods.

For West African countries, the workshop is planned to take place  in Abuja, Nigeria. This workshops is organized by FAO regional office for Africa in collaboration with the FAO Representation in Nigeria. The  workshop will target both Plant Protection Officers and extension officers and Farmer Field School practitioners, who will spend the last two days of the workshop (9-10 september) discussing Farmer Field School training curricula.The workshop will be followed by national training events in key countries.

Training of FFS Master trainers will be organized shortly in other sub-regions of Africa, so that FFS can be rolled out through thousands of Farmer Field Schools implemented by FAO, governments, extension services, farmer organizations and their financial and technical partners.  The curricula will also be useful for short training of agricultural advisers and for village rallies.

Participation to the workshop is now closed but reports will be made available upon request.

For additional information, please contact [email protected]