300 million farmers brace for armyworm invasion

BEIJING: China warned its 300 million farmers to prepare for further infestations of a crop-eating pest that’s devastated harvests in Africa after spreading from the Americas in 2016.

The voracious fall armyworm is likely to spread through China’s northern corn-growing areas after being detected in 13 provinces as of May 10, according to a statement published on Sunday by the country’s agricultural ministry.

The harvest must be secured by “snatching food from the worms’ mouths”, it said.

There’s a high probability that the pest – the larva of the fall armyworm moth – will spread across all of the country’s grain production area in the next 12 months, the US Department of Agriculture’s Foreign Agricultural Service said in a report this month.

The outbreak can cut output and lower the quality of a range of crops such as corn, rice, wheat, sugarcane, cotton and soybeans, according to the USDA.

The threat this time is from a different kind of armyworm than previous infestations of the pest in China.

It’s the latest challenge for the nation’s agriculture industry, which is struggling to contain a ninemonth long outbreak of African swine fever – a contagious disease that kills most infected pigs within days.

The warning also comes as the importance of domestic crop production increases after China imposed extra tariffs on purchases of US farm products as part of the trade war.

Images of the fall armyworm moth as well as its eggs and larva, together with information on its habits, damage and controlling measures, were also published on the ministry’s website.

China first reported the discovery in Yunnan province in late January.