By Dorcas Kabuya
They have become synonymous with every agricultural season, ravaging mainly the maize crop, thereby threatening household food and nutritional security for most smallholder farmers in Africa because few agroecological pest management innovations exist against the pest. These are Fall Armyworms (FAW) whose presence has, over the past years, been reported across the country.
Against this backdrop, the Ministry of Agriculture, working with the International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology (ICIPE), is implementing a project called Agroecological Management of the FAW in Eastern and Southern Africa, whose focus is to control the pest using Agroecological Management practices.
The German Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) funds the three-year project under the Innovation for Agriculture Fund in collaboration with the German Development Cooperation (GIZ).
Speaking during the inception meeting, Agriculture Permanent Secretary Green Mbozi, in a speech read on his behalf by Zambia Agricultural Research Institute (ZARI) Deputy Director, Dickson Nguni, noted that the government was pleased to partner with GIZ in fighting the outbreak of FAW.
Agricultural Permanent Secretary Green Mbozi, in a speech, read on his behalf by Zambia Agricultural Research Institute (ZARI) Deputy Director, Dr Dickson Nguni, noted that the government was pleased with GIZ and ICIPE for coming on board in complementing its efforts in addressing the problem of FAW, which had become a perennial problem.
“Government has been investing in efforts to find sustainable solutions to the problem to reduce the money spent to control the pest annually,” he said.
Mr Mbozi added that the government was confident that the project would significantly contribute to the strides being made to promote inter-country research and development, thereby strengthening the resilience of smallholder farmers to the FAW.
“In responding to this challenge, the Ministry of Agriculture through ZARI has developed three tolerant maize varieties that will soon be made to the smallholder farmers,” he disclosed.
And Head of the Development Corporation from the German Embassy, Jonathan Gatzer, noted that the German government would work closely with the Zambian government to ensure food security.
Mr Gatzer said the German government was pleased that the project would be implemented in Zambia when the country is facing food security challenges partly due to the loss of maize resulting from the Fall Army Worm across the country.
“The project is foreseen to focus on the innovation-led promotion of climate-smart, gender-responsive and agroecological approaches in managing FAW,” he stated.
Meanwhile, the Head of Plant Health from ICIPE, Thomas Dubois, revealed that ICIPE had developed several Integrated Pest Management (IPM) technologies that were beneficial to the environment and humans.
Dr Dubois noted that the coming of the FAW had led to increased chemical usage among smallholder farmers, thereby increasing the cost of maize production.
“The spraying of broad-spectrum insecticides kills the beneficial insects leading to nature imbalance which is not sustainable for the farmer,” he hinted.
Dr Dubois stated that the project plans to disseminate the developed technologies to 200 000 farmers in the three countries, among them push-pull technology, bio-pesticides application, uses of pheromone traps, and use of natural enemies in controlling FAW.
The project worth approximately five million Euros will be implemented in Malawi, Uganda and Zambia with a view of sustainably strengthening the resilience of smallholders to fall armyworm infestations in the cultivation of maize.
The author is an Agriculture Information Officer at the National Agricultural Information Services. She is also CCARDESA Information, Communication and Knowledge Management (ICKM) focal point person for Zambia
