FARMERS have been cautioned against the use of chemicals to kill fall armyworm, a pest which has always been a torn in the flesh of farmers, particularly maize farmers.
An Associate Professor at the Department of Plant Science and Biotechnology, Ekiti State University, Michael Olusola Obembe, gave the warning while featuring as a keynote speaker at a workshop on integrated pest management of fall armyworm organised by the Integrated Pest Management of Fall armyworm for Sustainable Food Security in Africa in collaboration with the Korea-Africa Food & Agriculture Cooperation Initiative (KAFACI) and National Fall armyworm Control Network at the National Centre for Genetic Resources and Biotechnology (NACGRAB), Ibadan, the Oyo State capital on Monday.
Obembe said: ”Fall armyworm is very destructive, it causes high level of destruction to crops most especially maize. They destroy the leaves, the stem alongside the crop.
“These pests have caused enormous loss to farmers which is worth billions of dollars all over the world including Nigeria. We have many control strategies to manage the situation such as the use of insecticides, but this use of insecticides is not advisable because these insecticides are not environmentally friendly.
“They can cause the division of the ozone layer in such a way that in the next 200 years, the whole world will be set ablaze. Also, a good number of farmers do not have the knowledge of the application of these insecticides and this cause the resurgent of these pests.
“Some of the pests will develop resistants against these insecticides. In the search of alternatives to these insecticides, farmers have arrived at many approaches. They are: physical control, cultural control, intercropping of crops and the use of plant materials which will control the insects.”
Obembe stated further: ”Formulation of plants and their products such as powders, volatile oils, non-volatile oils and extracts can be effective replacement for chemical insecticides to protect stored seeds against insect pests.
“This method is cheap, ecologically friendly, does not cause ozone layer depletion and has no adverse effects on the environment and other non-targety animals.”
Speaking on the importance of the workshop, Director of Research at NACGRAB, Dr Sunday Aladele, noted: ”The essence of this workshop is to enlighten the farming community about the importance of controlling fall armyworm. If it is not controlled, it can ravage the entire population.
“The purpose of this enlightenment is to give us the update of five years research work and findings both in farmers field and research field. And how we can leverage these findings to solve the farmers problem.
“Some of them are still on the pilot stage, so during this discussion we want to see how this type of findings can be scaled up, especially to commercial farming. Because this fall armyworm whether maize feed is small or big, when they enter, they will not allow the maize to produce effectively. Therefore, the purpose of this workshop is to enure that the researchers reveal some of the work they have done in the last five years.”
Speaking with the Nigerian Tribune on the sidelines of the workshop, Director, NACGRAB, Dr Anthony Okere, said: ”NACGRAB, with respect to this fall armyworm project that we have been collaborating with the Korea-Africa Food & Agriculture Cooperation Initiative (KAFACI) for the past five years, we have been able to discover some indigenous knwoledge that could be of importance to manage fall armyworm.
“This development will ensure that farmers do not lose in its entirety when they go into commercial production. For the fact that fall armyworm attacks maize basically and now intercropping it with cassava and some other crops will now help in making sure that farmers will be able to break even no matter what it is, they will be able to go home smiling instead of total loss.
