FAO Global Action for Fall Armyworm Control still has much work ahead, Director-General says

Rome - There must be no letting up in efforts to control the spread of one of the world’s most destructive plant pests, fall armyworm, QU Dongyu, Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, said today.

“We are seeing some positive outcomes,”as a result of the Global Action for Fall Armyworm Control”, Qu said in opening remarks at a Joint Briefing on its implementation,”but we cannot afford to slow down now! We need to roll up our sleeves further and speed up action.”

The pest has spread rapidly over recent years. In 2016, only six countries in West Africa reported fall armyworm outside its native range in the Americas, while today 78 countries in Africa, the Near East, Asia and the Pacific are reporting its presence.

In Africa alone, it is estimated that fall armyworm causes annual losses of $9.4 billion. 

Early attempts to control its spread relied on intensified pesticide use, putting human health and the environment at risk. Under the Global Action, FAO and partners have been striving to mitigate these risks and control this invasive pest. 

The coordination mechanism of the initiative, which was launched in December 2019, ensures that technical and financial resources at global, regional and national levels actually reach farmers’ fields. Guidelines for prevention and preparedness have been developed and disseminated to guide action in countries where fall armyworm has not so far been reported.

FAO and its partners are validating and disseminating Integrated Pest Management (IPM) practices against fall armyworm. These include upscaling good agricultural practices, biocontrol technologies and improved crop varieties through information exchange across countries and capacity development at the farmer level. 

Training efforts, in collaboration with government partners, have reached over 200 000 participants, mostly farmers and agricultural outreach workers.

Reports on the impact of these measures are promising. In Kenya, yield losses caused by fall armyworm have been consistently decreasing since 2020, and biopesticides and biological controls have shown up to 88 percent efficacy against the pest. 

In April this year, the Global Action’s Steering Committee, the Technical Committee and the Working Group on Resource Mobilization supported the proposal to extend this initiative to 2023. This extension will allow the initiative to expand its scope to continue to cover multiple pests and multiple crops. Today’s briefing aimed to review the initiative’s results over the last three years and provide guidance for its implementation in 2023.