Kenyan Farmers Reaping From Fall Armyworm Project
By Duncan Mboya
Kenyan farmers are benefiting from the South-South Cooperation Fall armyworm (FAW) approach that involves the application of bio-pesticides and nature-based solutions.
Speaking in Embu, eastern Kenya, the farmers narrated how they no longer incur losses from the outbreak and spread of FAW in the country, courtesy of the South–South cooperation led by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the Chinese government.
Margret Nyaga, chairperson of Nyakio farmers’ field school group, said that since they were trained under the program, they have been recording bumper harvests.
“We have learnt the application of compost manure and use of bio-pesticides through the program and we are now harvesting maize for consumption and sale,” Nyaga told Science Africa in her farm in Mururiri, Embu, during a research and field site visit.
Nyaga said that through the project, they have adopted good land preparation, use of compost manure and occasionally monitor their farms.
She noted that they have formed a farmer’s field school with 15 members where they share knowledge towards the adoption of sustainable FAW management practices.
Nyaga observed that their main activity has been farming and therefore they are open to receiving new innovative techniques that could save them from making losses.
Dr. Baogen Gu, Senior Agricultural Officer, in charge of Pest and Pesticide Management, Plant Production and Protection Division at FAO, launched the Global Action for FAW Control, an international, multi-stakeholder initiative to enhance countries’ capacities to manage FAW and safeguard food security in 2019.
Dr. Baogen noted that the project that is funded by the Chinese government in Kenya and Ghana is aimed at strengthening inter-regional cooperation for sustainable FAW management through South-South Cooperation, and it runs from 2023 to 2025.
China had been attacked by the pest previously and is willing to share how they have managed to control the invasion.
Dr. Baogen noted that the project is all about the application of natural enemies of FAW and the use of Integrated Pest Management (IPM) strategies.
“We are using the field schools in helping spread the technology to farmers in areas that are worst affected by the pest,” he added.
Dr. Baogen said that FAO is extending its work with farmers across the pilot countries to develop good strategies, including community-based scouting and monitoring, bio-ecological control and farmer schools to build their capacity to detect and control FAW.
He said that from the results so far, the South-South Cooperation is a good model that should be scaled up to benefit other countries.
Dr. Nyabenyi Tipo, Acting FAO Representative in Kenya, said that FAW caught farmers unaware and destroyed their crops due to a lack of knowledge and over-reliance on chemicals.
Dr.Tipo said that the project that is situated in the leading maize growing areas of Embu in eastern and Mabanga and Kitale in western Kenya has helped farmers adopt early warning systems in monitoring FAW in the field and promoted the use of natural enemies of FAW in the field.
She noted that besides Kenya, other African countries are equally grappling with FAW since the lack of rains and increased temperatures are providing conditions for their multiplication.
Dr. Tipo noted that the project has demonstrated successful Kenya-China collaboration models and highlights tangible outcomes in agricultural development with a focus on IPM and other innovations.
Prof. George Ongamo, principal investigator of the project and FAW management specialist, noted that farmers are adapting well to the techniques after being trained through the farmer field schools.
Prof. Ongamo said that many farmers are also joining the campaign and are already applying bio-pesticides and nature-based solutions.
FAW, he said, is one of the main limiting factors towards global food security and a devastating plant pest that affects maize extensively.
Through the project, Kenyan scientists have already attended two high-level training sessions on research and extension in China, where they learn the techniques.
FAO recently trained Kenya’s plant protection and extension officers with skills and tools to manage FAW sustainably.
FAW, a native to tropical and subtropical regions of the Americas, also known as Spodoptera frugiperda, is an insect pest that feeds on more than 80 crop species, and causes damage to economically important crops such as maize, rice and sorghum.