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Use of natural predators offers additional environmental co-benefits that lead to improved soils, resilience, nutrition and to reduced carbon emissions.
The use of natural predators and other integrated pest management solutions that are more easily deployed by smallholders remains the most efficient weapon against fall armyworm, which is threatening the food security and livelihoods of millions.
A recently concluded online conference bringing together researchers from around the world working on management of fall armyworm concluded that the use of agro-ecological methods offer proven low-cost measures for controlling the destructive pest.
The conference, convened by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), also advocated for integrated pest management that is accessible to smallholders who face the biggest threat from the pest.
‘We know, for example, that resistant crop varieties can be the first line of defence for a safe and sustainable management of the pest,’ said Ismahane Elouafi, chief scientist with FAO. ‘There are a number of maize lines with resistance against fall armyworm that are ready to be tested in different countries.’
More than 500 scientists and researchers affirmed the preliminary findings from the research conducted by the Center for International Forestry Research and World Agroforestry (CIFOR-ICRAF) on low-cost, non-toxic, highly specific strategies for smallholders to manage fall armyworm, which show that that agroecological approaches are effective against the pest and provide additional benefits.
According to CIFOR-ICRAF, there are over 150 parasitoid species and other natural predators — including spiders, beetles, ants, social wasps, insectivorous birds and bats — known to attack fall armyworm.
These natural enemies are abundant in most smallholders’ fields and data indicate that they provide effective control of the pest in many situations, with added environmental co-benefits that lead to improved soils, resilience, nutrition and to reduced carbon emissions, thus adding to efforts to manage agriculture sustainably.
Fall armyworm can feed on over 350 plant species and poses a particularly significant risk for millions of maize-producing smallholders in Southern Africa, where the cost of chemicals recommended as remedies for the pest puts them out of reach of many.
‘Evidence from assessment of fall armyworm shows that the infestation can only be tackled using an integrated pest management approach in a sustainable way,’ said May-Guri Sæthre of the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation, one of the partners of the conference hosted from Zambia.
The conference was organized by the Malawi Department for Agricultural Research, Zambian Agricultural Research Institute, ICRAF, Southern African Development Community, FAO Sub-regional Office for Southern Africa and Grow Asia to deliberate on how to deal with the menace.
Fall armyworm, which is considered one of the Top 10 most-devastating pests affecting food and agriculture has now spread to 71 countries outside the Americas, causing an estimated economic damage of USD 9.4 billion annually in Africa alone and USD 884 million in Asia.
In Sub-Saharan Africa, governments have spent huge sums purchasing and distributing pesticides — including many highly toxic chemicals that have been banned in other parts of the world — as an emergency measure. According to a recent ICRAF policy brief on the fall armyworm, the chemicals used to fight the pest in Africa are sometimes donated without consideration of the impact on human health and the environment and, in many cases, the pesticides are not even effective against fall armyworm.
‘Sub-Saharan Africa is experiencing an epidemic of pesticide abuse,’ argue the authors of the policy brief. ‘Smallholders often spray highly toxic chemicals without protective clothing or attention to other safety measures, such as appropriate dilution rates, field re-entry periods, pre-harvest intervals and safe disposal of used containers. A number of highly hazardous chemicals that are banned in the United States or Europe are readily available on agro-dealer shelves throughout the region.’
Fall armyworm (Spodoptera frugiperda) is a pest native to the Americas that was first detected in West Africa in 2016 before spreading across the continent, leaving a trail of damaged crops. In Africa, it consumes a wide variety of cereal crops, particularly maize, which is the major staple grown by most farmers.
Watch the conference recording
Read more about fall armyworm
Harrison RD, Thierfelder C, Baudron F, Chinwada P, Midega C, Schaffner U, van den Berg J. 2019. Agro-ecological options for fall armyworm (Spodoptera frugiperda JE Smith) management: providing low-cost, smallholder-friendly solutions to an invasive pest. Journal of Environmental Management 243:318–330.
World Agroforestry (ICRAF) is a centre of scientific and development excellence that harnesses the benefits of trees for people and the environment. Knowledge produced by ICRAF enables governments, development agencies and farmers to utilize the power of trees to make farming and livelihoods more environmentally, socially and economically sustainable at multiple scales. ICRAF is one of the 15 members of the CGIAR, a global research partnership for a food-secure future. We thank all donors who support research in development through their contributions to the CGIAR Fund.