Pest fight goes digital

ARMYWORM: TALKING MOBILE PHONE APP IDENTIFIES SICK PLANTS

Insects introduced from Americas first appeared in west Africa in 2016.

The fight by sub-Saharan farmers against the fall armyworm pest, which has devastated crops and threatened food security for 300 million people, has gone digital.

The United Nations has reported that the new weapon, which was launched by the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and Pennsylvania State University, is a talking mobile phone app named Nuru, which can identify the insect which is, in fact, a caterpillar.

“Many African farmers might have heard about fall armyworm but are seeing it for the first time,” FAO said.

Thanks to the Nuru app, identifying a fall armyworm infestation is as simple as holding a mobile phone next to a sick plant.

Confirmation is immediate, FAO says, adding that the software works on a standard Android phone. Soon, in addition to English, Nuru will be able to speak Swahili, French and Twi.

Another important feature is that it can work offline so farmers can use it whenever they want.

Fall armyworm is native to tropical and subtropical regions of the Americas. The insect first appeared in west Africa in 2016, then spread rapidly across all countries in sub-Saharan Africa last year, infecting millions of hectares of maize. – ANA