KEEPING THE FALL ARMYWORM AT BAY

Asia tackles the pest from all angles

A fall armyworm moth over a map of Asia.

When a caterpillar munched through Muhammad Hasan Ali’s maize field in 2018, he was stumped as to what it was or how he could manage the voracious pest. All this Bangladeshi farmer knew was that his harvest and family’s income security were at risk.

“I had never seen this type of insect in previous seasons, but I soon learned from agricultural extension workers it was the fall armyworm,” he explained.

Researchers from the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) anticipated its spread from sub-Saharan Africa and had proactively begun to prepare coordinated action with public and private institutions across South Asia.

Hasan Ali joined one of the many CIMMYT-facilitated training courses for extension workers and farmers, where he learned how to identify, monitor and control the destructive pest.

The fall armyworm’s preferred host is maize — a crop expanding faster than any other cereal in South Asia. The spread of the pest is a major threat to farmers’ livelihoods, as many rely on maize crops for their household income by selling it as feed grain for the growing poultry and fish sectors.

“Asia’s tropical climates are highly conducive for fall armyworm to be endemic almost throughout the year,” explained B.M. Prasanna, director of CIMMYT’s Global Maize Program and the CGIAR Research Program on Maize (MAIZE).

“Farmers need to be made aware of the significant environmental and ecological hazards caused by indiscriminate application of highly toxic synthetic pesticides to control the pest,” he said. “We are promoting an integrated pest management strategy, including low-cost agronomic practices, environmentally safer pesticides, biological control, biopesticides, and varieties with tolerance to the pest, working closely with both public and private partners.”

Representing CIMMYT, Prasanna is coordinating a global research-for-development consortium to build an evidence-based response against fall armyworm in both Africa and Asia.

JOINING FORCES TO DEFEND ALL FRONTS

Participants of the Fighting Against Fall Armyworm trainings learn to collect field data through the Fall Armyworm Monitor web app in a farmer’s field in Chauadanga, Bangladesh.

In early 2019, CIMMYT partnered with international research funders and nonprofits to plan a regional response to the pest. This initiative brought together over 100 agricultural decision-makers from Bangladesh, Cambodia, India, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Thailand.

As a result, governments created national task forces to mobilize resources, create awareness
about fall armyworm, and establish pest surveillance and management protocols.

In South Asia, CIMMYT has helped national partners to address their institutional needs for an efficient response. Another key area of work has been the development of educational and training programs on integrated pest management.

“It is imperative that governmental extension agents are educated on evidence-based and sustainable ways to control the pest, and pass on these methods to farmers,” said Tim Krupnik, a CIMMYT senior scientist based in Bangladesh. “CIMMYT developed fact sheets, videos and radio jingles to promote integrated pest management strategies, which have been translated into multiple local languages and distributed to farmers across the region.”

CIMMYT researchers have also shared insights and experiences on local and national media.

“In Nepal, CIMMYT partnered with the Plant Quarantine and Pesticide Management Centre to broadcast a fall armyworm management video on national television, reaching an estimated audience of one million,” said AbduRahman Beshir, CIMMYT’s maize seed systems specialist based in Nepal.

PEST WATCH

CIMMYT researchers designed an online pest surveillance application which uses crowdsourced data, in collaboration with Bangladesh’s Department of Agricultural Extension and the national fall armyworm task force.

Extension officers in the field enter fall armyworm information using handheld smart devices. The online tool stores the data, aggregates it and produces weekly incidence warnings, on a local, district and national scale.

“Working with farmers and agricultural agencies to collect information on pest population and crop damage helps agricultural extension agents and farmers to make data-driven pest management decisions,” said Krupnik, whose research team led the app and website development.

Efforts towards establishing similar early warning systems have begun in Laos, Myanmar and Nepal, where CIMMYT researchers are working with governments, nonprofits and farmers to conduct surveys and build reliable networks.

BREEDING FOR RESISTANCE

CIMMYT researchers in Kenya have identified maize germplasm with resistance to fall armyworm and have used these traits to develop improved maize inbred lines and hybrids that are currently being tested in field trials.

“These efforts and the resulting resistant varieties will be distributed across Africa and Asia in the fight against the pest,” Prasanna said.

Biological control, including biopesticides, is another important component of integrated pest management strategies. In addition to supporting research by national partners on parasitoids, CIMMYT has engaged with the private sector to develop systems through which proven biopesticides can reach farmers in Asia quickly and effectively, Krupnik said.

Partners and funders

This work is funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Michigan State University, and the CGIAR Research Program on Maize (MAIZE).

© 2020 International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center
We would like to thank all funders who supported this research through their contributions to the CGIAR Trust Fund.

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CREDITS

Editors-in-chief
Rodrigo Ordóñez, Geneviève Renard
Project coordination
Alison Doody, Emma Orchardson
Art directors
Clyde R. Beaver III, Alfonso Cortés, Nancy Valtierra
Layout and design
Nancy Valtierra
Web development
Ricardo López
Graphics and illustrations
Ángel Eduardo Aguilar, Clyde R. Beaver III, Alfonso Cortés, Marcelo Ortiz, Eliot Sánchez,
Nancy Valtierra
Writers and editors
Ricardo Curiel, Leslie Domínguez, Mary Donovan, Alison Doody, Jennifer Johnson, G. Michael Listman, Marcia MacNeil, Marta Millere, Matthew O’Leary, Emma Orchardson, Samuel Storr
Contributors
Ricardo Ampudia, Lone Badstue, Hans Braun, Johanna Braun, José Juan Caballero Flores, Denise Costich, Susanne Dreisigacker, Andrea Gardeazabal Monsalue, Elias Garcia, Bram Govaerts, Filippo Guzzon, Jesús Herrera, M.L. Jat, Victor Kommerell, Timothy J. Krupnik, Jean-Flavien Le Besque, Joshua Masinde, Terence Molnar, Dina Najjar, Natalia Palacios, Thomas Payne, Kevin Pixley, B.M. Prasanna, Michael Quinn, Rajiv Kumar Sharma, H.S. Sidhu, José Luis Torres, Martha Wilcox, MAIZE Independent Steering Committee (ISC), WHEAT Independent Steering Committee (ISC)
Photography
Alfonso Cortés, Georg Goergen/IITA, Uttam Kumar, Peter Lowe, Johnson Siamachira, Love Kumar Singh/BISA, Sam Storr, CIMMYT Archives
ISSN#
0188-9214
Correct citation
CIMMYT. 2020. Seeds of change. CIMMYT Annual Report 2019. CDMX, Mexico: CIMMYT.
AGROVOC descriptors:
Maize; Wheat; Plant breeding; Genetic resources; Innovation adoption; Plant biotechnology; Seed production; Food security; Sustainability; Research policies; Economic analysis; Cropping systems; Agricultural research; Organization of research; Developing countries. Additional Keywords: CIMMYT. AGRIS category codes: A50 Agricultural Research; A01 Agriculture– General Aspects. Dewey decimal classification: 630

© International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), 2020. All rights reserved. The designations employed in the presentation of materials in this publication do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of CIMMYT or its contributory organizations concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city, or area, or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries. CIMMYT encourages fair use of this material. Proper citation is requested.

ACRONYMS

ACIAR
Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research
AGROSAVIA
Colombian Agricultural Research Corporation (Corporación Colombiana de Investigación Agropecuaria)
ATA
Agricultural Transformation Agency
BISA
Borlaug Institute in South Asia
BrAPI
Breeding Advanced Programming Interface
CCAFS
CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture, and Food Security
CIAT
International Center for Tropical Agriculture
CIMMYT
International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center
CRP
CGIAR Research Program
CSISA
Cereal Systems Initiative for South Asia
CSSRI
Central Soil Salinity Research Institute
EIAR
Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research
EiB
CGIAR Excellence in Breeding Platform
FACASI
Farm Mechanization and Conservation Agriculture for Sustainable Intensification
FAO
Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations
ICAR
Indian Council of Agricultural Research
ICARDA
International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas
IFPRI
International Food Policy Research Institute
IIASA
International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis
IITA
International Institute for Tropical Agriculture
INIFAP
Mexico's National Forestry, Crops and Livestock Research Institute (Instituto Nacional de Investigaciones Forestales, Agrícolas y Pecuarias)
IRRI
International Rice Research Institute
MAIZE
CGIAR Research Program on Maize
MENA
Middle East and North Africa
MDGs
Millennium Development Goals
ODK
Open Data Kit
OPV
Open-pollinated variety
PET
Polyethylene terephthalate
PIM
CGIAR Research Program on Policies, Institutions, and Markets
R&D
Research and Development
SADER
Mexico's Secretariat of Agriculture and Rural Development (Secretaría de Agricultura y Desarrollo Rural)
SDGs
Sustainable Development Goals
SDSN
Sustainable Development Solutions Network
SMS
Straw Management System
STMA
Stress Tolerant Maize for Africa
TReNDS
Thematic Research Network on Data and Statistics
UN
United Nations
USAID
United States Agency for International Development
WHEAT
CGIAR Research Program on Wheat

Sustainable Development Goals

On September 24, 2013, the newly formed United Nations (UN) High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development held its first meeting. At the Rio+20 Conference, Member States also agreed to launch a process to develop a set of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which were to build upon the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) that were established in 2000 and expired in 2015.

Of the 17 individual goals, 10 relate directly to CGIAR activities and to CIMMYT’s mandate. The SDGs have set the pathway for the next 15 years of agricultural, social, and economic development. Likewise, CGIAR has transformed its approach to ensure that its work aligns with the ambitious goals.

CIMMYT, through its research for development activities, is working toward a world free of poverty, hunger, and environmental degradation. CIMMYT and CGIAR efforts help bring the world closer to reaching the goals, such as the empowerment of women, the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, and the improvement of health and nutrition for the world’s poorest people.

CIMMYT’s work contributes to the following SDGs:

About CIMMYT

CIMMYT — the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center — is the global leader in publicly-funded maize and wheat research and related farming systems. Headquartered near Mexico City, CIMMYT works with hundreds of partners throughout the developing world to sustainably increase the productivity of maize and wheat cropping systems, thus improving global food security and reducing poverty. CIMMYT is a member of the CGIAR System and leads the CGIAR Research Programs on Maize and Wheat and the Excellence in Breeding Platform. The Center receives support from national governments, foundations, development banks and other public and private agencies.

For more information, visit www.cimmyt.org.