March of armyworm strikes fear into India’s farmers
A FEARED crop pest which has caused billions of dollars of agricultural devastation in Africa has been spotted in India for the first time, raising fears it will harm millions of farmers.
The Indian state of Karnataka has reported the continent’s first infestation of fall armyworm which can spread at up to 60 miles a day and has a voracious appetite for maize and other crops.
The moth pest, which devours crops during the caterpillar phase of its life cycle, has already spread at an alarming rate to neighbouring states. Agricultural experts say it is now likely to head into south-east Asia and China.
Gopi Ramasamy, India director of the Centre for Agriculture and Bioscience International (CABI), said the pest’s impact would be huge. India grows nearly 22million tons of maize which is used for both food and poultry feed. China is the world’s largest maize producing country after America.
“This is going to have a huge impact on food security and also on the poultry industry, so the countries have to move very fast,” he told The Daily Telegraph. As well as maize, the caterpillar attacks 80 crops, including rice, vegetables, groundnuts and cotton.
Mr Ramasamy said it was almost impossible to prevent the spread of the caterpillar. He said: “We know it is a caterpillar which can spread very, very fast. By all probability we are expecting it to enter into Bangladesh, Nepal and all those countries on the eastern side of India.”
The United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said fall armyworm could threaten millions of small-scale farmers who depend on their crops for food as well as income. Southern China and south-east Asia were at greatest risk due to their climate, it added.
The pest is native to tropical and subtropical regions of the Americas, but has spread across Africa since being detected in west Africa in early 2016. Almost all sub-saharan countries have reported infestations which have affected millions of hectares of crops.
In Africa, FAO field schools have taught farmers to spot and then crush the pest by hand and curb its spread with bio-pesticides made from plants such as neem and tobacco or by using natural predators, including ants.