Expert: Timely tackling of armyworms will save farmers from invasions

NAIROBI, KENYA: Efforts are being made to make farmers in Central, Rift Valley, Western and Coast aware of the deadly armyworm invasions at a time experts have warned that the pest attack risks staining Kenya’s food stability.

Export Trading Group (ETG) Country Director Lewis Giles says while the awareness has been extensive, farmers often lack the resources to implement recommendations.

“Kenya is not alone in the fight against the armyworm menace; collaboration across the East Africa region is key to containing the spread and reducing the prevalence at farm level,” said Mr Giles in an interview.

Latest reports indicate that the slow response to tackling the armyworm invasion could soon lead to massive starvation in Kenya. The armyworm has since last year been wreaking havoc in the country’s North Rift grain basket. The attacks have since spread to Central Kenya and at the coast.

According to Mr Giles, the armyworm invasion is not a new agronomical threat. He says outbreaks in North and South America have also ravaged crops in the past. “This has now largely been eliminated due to seed technology, specifically genetically-enhanced hybrid seeds which are resistant.”

While their invasions are usually deadly, the ETG Country Director says it has been (very) hard to quantitatively measure the impact of armyworm on Kenyan crop production due to the lack of on-the-ground data collection and availability.

But some estimates are in the range of a 20 per cent yield hit last year. “I have, however, met farmers who had their whole crop decimated. A 20 per cent yield decrease equates to as much as five bags per acre using an optimistic average yield of 25 bags an acre,” said Mr Giles.

Mr Giles observes that farmers who have been able to control the pest often had to spray between 8-11 times, adding significant unforeseen expenditures onto the cost of production. With this increasing burden, he says if the armyworm outbreak is not controlled, Kenyan farmers could start switching to alternative crops. “This would be disastrous for Kenyan food security.”

But it is not all gloomy. The ETG chief says there is a growing list of products on the market targeting armyworms. Already, some farmers have run extensive trials to see which is the most effective on their land. “At ETG, we supply Calrate. This is an effective chemical that has been positively received in the market. The product has a higher active ingredient dosage which lacks in competing chemicals,” he said.

To realise the full impact of Calrate, farmers have to spray directly into the spaces between the leaves and the stem of their maize crop. This is because the armyworm typically inhabits these spaces during the day and come out onto the leaves during the night or early morning to feed

So lethal is the armyworm that female ones lay more than 2,000 eggs each, which hatch in 4-5 days and can travel more than 100 kilometres.