The management of invasive alien insect pest called fall armyworm (Spodoptera frugiperda) has not been as urgent and imperative as now. The livestock industry especially poultry which provides jobs for millions along the values chain in Africa is endangered because of maize production.
Maize is an important component of livestock feed, especially poultry. Maize production has greatly reduced since 2016 when the fall armyworm invaded Africa beginning from Nigeria. Reduction in maize production has made the price of maize to skyrocket and this has increased the cost of production in poultry industry due to poultry feed. Hence management of fall armyworm is important in order to boost maize production. However, management of fall armyworm must be done at low cost.
Also ecology must be considered in the management of fall armyworm. Environment must not be polluted with pesticides. Environmental pollution may have adverse effects on other macro and micro organisms. Biodiversity may be affected.
Birds, harmless reptiles, rats, rodents and other micro and macro –organisms may ingest pesticides and die. Some of them may not die directly but transfer the pesticides to other predators in the food chains.
Also, some of the pesticides may run off as part of erosion to streams, ponds, lakes and rivers. Humans may ingest these pesticides through drinking of water. Some of the pesticides may be ingested by fishes and other aquatic animals. Man may eat these fishes and aquatic animals.
This may lead to accumulation of these pesticides in the body of humans called bio-magnification.
The effect of the pesticides on humans may be chronic or acute. These unintended health issues must be avoided in the management of fall armyworm. As defined by experts, bioeconomy is knowledge-based production and use of biological resources to provide products, processes and services in all economic sectors within the frame of sustainable economic systems.
Therefore, there is need for harnessing bioeconomics in the management of fall armyworm. This, in this instance, means production and use of biological resources that can be used in the management of fall armyworm. These include the use of plants like Siam weed (Chromolaena odorata), Bitter melon (Momordica charantia), Mexican sunflower (Tithonia diversifolia), bitter leaf (Vernonia amygdalina), and neem tree (Azadirachta indica) and so on.
Dr. Timothy Oluwafemi Ajiboye is an Agricultural entomologist, a biodiversity conservation expert and a Striga management specialist and Principal Investigator of KAFACI fall armyworm project in Nigeria. He works at National Centre for Genetic Resources and Biotechnology (NACGRAB) (NABDA Centre of Excellence).
Other biological resources include rabbit urine, goat’s urine mixed with goat dung and cow urine mixed with cow dung. The plant aqueous crude extracts can be done by farmers by soaking these plants in water for 48 to 96 hours. The aqueous crude extracts can then be sprayed on the whorls of maize. Likewise rabbit’s urine diluted appropriately with water can be sprayed into the whorls of maize to control fall armyworm. Goat’s urine mixed with dung or cattle’s urine mixed with dung can be thoroughly mixed using appropriate volume of water and sieved. The sieved water can then be sprayed into the whorls of maize.
All these are cheaper, economical, and ecologically and environmentally safe and also not inimical to human health.
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