Keeping an eye on Fall armyworm: Monitoring the pest so it doesn’t destroy your maize

Hello, listeners. In our program today, we have a story from Ethiopia where farmers are monitoring their maize fields so their plants don’t get infested with Fall Armyworm. We will share with you the experience of an Ethiopian farmer, Mrs. Aynadis. Mrs. Aynadis, please introduce yourself to our listeners.

Thank you. My name is Aynadis Tilahun and I live in the Mankusa Abdegoma district of Gojjam zone. I am 45 years old and a mother of four kids. I grow maize on one hectare of land.

Mrs. Aynadis, your farm is so green and I love it. Can I take a picture?

Be my guest. It’s not just you. Most people from the cities like taking pictures here. It is so beautiful, they say.

It is indeed. How often do you inspect your farm?

Since I planted my crops, I have been inspecting them on a daily basis. It’s very important to check if there are traces of Fall armyworm every morning.

How easy is it to go from plant to plant and look for signs of FAW?

It’s not easy at all. We had students last year who volunteered to help us kill the eggs and caterpillars. But some volunteers also caused damage. Some stepped on the plants and others cut the silk. They don’t have too much knowledge because they come from an urban area.

The easiest way to monitor is to randomly select plants from different parts of the field. I randomly check three or four plants in the centre, in the right side and the left, as well as the front and back.

How do you know if your plant is okay, or if it is infested by Fall armyworm?

Someone with knowledge of what an infested plant looks like can spot that easily. First, you can look for cut leaves. The pest eats them, and you can see that from a distance.

The other sign is that you see a small, powder-like substance that is whitish in colour. Those are the eggs. You have to destroy the eggs before they grow.

If there is a hole in the stem or the whorl with light brown powder around it, it means the pest is inside the plant. In this case, I inspect other plants near it, looking closely for eggs which could have been laid by the Fall armyworm.

We have learned a lot about the appearance of the caterpillar or larva, which is the stage of the Fall armyworm that causes the damage. It has a distinctive look, with an upside down “Y” shape on its forehead and four dark or dark brown dots on the tip of its back, forming a square.

The eggs look like powder and I rub them off the leaf to stop them from growing into the caterpillars that destroyed plants last year. I monitor my farmland every day or every other day to see if there are eggs. I am happy with how my plantation looks. It’s very good, and it gives me hope that I will have a good yield.

But how do you know that the light brown powder in the hole is from the Fall armyworm?

The Fall armyworm eats a lot and leaves its feces, called frass, behind it, which cover the hole. When you open the whorled leaves and the silk of the maize cob a little bit, you can see the caterpillar. The experts showed us how to identify it. They told us it is a caterpillar with dark dots on its back. It has lines that join on the upper part of its head. That is how I identify the pest. Everyone in my district knows very well how to identify Fall armyworm.

Mrs. Aynadis, you know Fall armyworm well. How do you know so much about the pest?

We were told by agricultural experts. They taught us how to identify Fall armyworm and how we should react when we come across one. We got a lot of information last year from the experts.
At first, most farmers thought Fall armyworm was a common pest; they thought it was a different caterpillar. But the experts showed us pictures and we physically saw some caterpillars and eggs. It was a big issue last year. This year, we can identify the pest on our own.

How long do you plan to continue inspecting your farm on a daily basis?

I am going to continue my inspection until we cut the maize plants for harvest. It’s safe to check only twice a week once the ear has developed. But just because you have a mature plant does not mean you should stop monitoring.

Is it only you or does everyone know they should monitor until they harvest their crops?

Everyone knows about it. Fall armyworm is a topic of discussion everywhere we go. For farmers like us who rely on maize for survival, it’s necessary to know as much as possible about the pest. So everyone is serious when it comes to taking care of their farmland.

Last year we saw the threat. Fall armyworm destroyed our crops. At that time, we were not very cautious and did not monitor as much. The pest invaded our plants within a short time. Some farmers used chemicals to save the plants. Last year was a big lesson. It taught us to increase the frequency of our inspection. That’s why I do the inspection every day.

What do you think would happen if you didn’t monitor your plants at all?

Oh! It could be a disaster for me and my family. The Fall armyworm could consume the entire crop and leave me with nothing to harvest. It means I would have nothing to sell and my children would not go to school. God forbid; it would be a disaster. I don’t want to risk these consequences. I can be sure I will get a good yield if I properly inspect my maize fields.

Let’s now get an expert’s view on identifying and monitoring Fall armyworm in Mankusa. Good to have you, sir. Could you tell us about yourself?

Thank you. I am Temesgen Mihret. I am a natural resource expert in Mankusa Abdegoma district.

Mr. Temesgen, you work closely with farmers—and farmers have planted a lot of maize this season. How satisfied are you that farmers are continuously monitoring their fields?

The monitoring is better than ever. Some farmers lost their crops last year. That made them stricter in following the directions from us. We tell them to check their field in the morning or in the evening when you can see Fall armyworm feeding. Almost all the farmers have developed the routine of monitoring their farm at least twice a week. This has helped a lot.

I can show you around the fields. The farmers tell us if they think their farm is at risk of being invaded by Fall armyworm. We go and check. But nothing threatening has happened so far.

From what I’ve seen, I believe the farmers are very active in monitoring if their crops are safe from the pest. They listen in groups to a radio program that airs twice a week. So they are aware of how to identify a plant that is affected either by the egg or the caterpillar. We advise them to kill the caterpillar, but we have chemicals ready in case there are too many pests for traditional methods like handpicking, pouring cow’s urine on the plant, planting weeds that attract the pest, and repeated ploughing.

Could you elaborate on exactly how farmers should monitor the fields?

Farmers should look for at least ten plants in a row. They should look closer to see if the stem, leaves, husk, or silk has brown powder-like remains. They should also look for any small white eggs.

They should remove the pest from the plant by handpicking and killing it. They can pour cow’s urine into the hole to kill the caterpillar if it is in the stem or the ear. They can destroy the white eggs on the leaves by handpicking and crushing them with their fingers.

If more than two out of the ten plants is infested, they should report to agricultural experts.

Also, if farmers monitor their fields two or three times in one day and find that more than 20 percent of their maize plants are infested with Fall armyworm, we advise them to use chemicals.

It sounds like the farmers will be happy with their yield this year. But what kind of method are they using to do the inspections?

They do the inspections in groups. For example, there are six clusters or groups of farmers who help each other inspect their farms—and they also listen to radio programs on Fall armyworm together and meet together with experts in this district. We tell them to inspect by taking a simple look at the plants. We advise them to handpick and kill the caterpillar if they find it.

What kind of damages should the farmers look for?

They should look for plants with torn leaves, plants with white powder on their leaves, and plants with coarse brown particles on their silk, with the texture of tea powder. Sometimes, maize leaves damaged by the FAW look like they were eaten or grazed by animals.

It takes four months for maize to grow from a seedling until it is mature. Can you take me through the process of what farmers should do over that period?

The first thing is selecting the maize field. After that, the land should be ploughed two to three times before sowing. Urea fertilizer is applied to the fields 35 days after sowing.

How do you advise farmers who practice conservation agriculture and try to reduce the amount of ploughing?

Well, farmers who use conservation agriculture can manually uproot the lower stem and root of the plant after the maize is harvested. Then they can burn the roots and the lower part of the stem of the plant. In this way, they can reduce the risk of facing the pest when they plant the next season.

After applying fertilizer, it’s time to start inspecting the fields. If there is any trace of Fall armyworm, we make a note of the field and categorize it as extremely affected or slightly affected. If the field is affected a lot, we use a quadrant, which is a one-metre square frame that helps decide whether we should use chemicals or handle it by traditional methods.

When the farmers take preventive measures at the earliest stage of plant growth, the pest can be managed.

Preventive measures might include pouring cow’s urine on the plant, separating small plants with less than five leaves with a canal to stop the caterpillars from spreading from one plant to another, planting desmodium to repel the pest, destroying eggs, and handpicking caterpillars. But if early control does not happen, the pest could spread to other fields and damage more crops.

How do farmers use the quadrant and how do they decide whether or not to use chemicals?

The quadrant method is similar to the method used by farmers where they take samples of ten plants in a row. The quadrant is a square frame which is one metre long by one metre wide. We place the quadrant randomly in the field and we check all plants that fall within the quadrant. If three or more of them are infested, we immediately use recommended chemicals, taking all necessary precautions. If the number of infested plants is two or less, then it is advisable to use traditional methods like handpicking and adding cow’s urine to the plants.

How do you interact with the farmers?

We teach them how to protect their fields. We do so by continuously giving them information on how to identify Fall armyworm, what to do when they find traces of the pest, and who to talk to when they need chemicals. We give them this information in gathering places like churches, markets, and kebele meeting places. We also go in person to their fields to help them inspect in groups.

How do you rate their level of understanding in identifying the stages of the Fall armyworm?

The farmers understand the life stages of the Fall armyworm in detail. We have held various workshops to create awareness among farmers. We used visual aids like banners or posters to illustrate the different life stages of Fall armyworm.

They also know how fast the pest can damage their fields and how dangerous it could be to their yields. A radio program is aired twice a week and listener groups tune in to get the latest information. The farmers also share stories during social occasions. The radio program is very important to reinforce their knowledge and to bring the issue of Fall armyworm to the farmers’ attention.

So, seeing farmers who can identify the caterpillar or the eggs is very promising. I personally think their crops are safe this year. This can be attributed to the hard work of governmental and non-governmental organizations in creating awareness about the Fall armyworm in different maize-producing areas across Ethiopia.

Listeners, we heard from Mrs. Aynadis, a hard-working farmer. She shared her experience of monitoring and identifying Fall armyworm. She has been inspecting her farm on a daily basis and is hopeful the monitoring will pay off in a better yield. Mrs. Aynadis identifies infested plants by looking for cut leaves, a white powder-like substance on leaves, and holes in the plant. Participating in workshops helped her become more cautious about the pest. With continued monitoring, Mrs. Aynadis expects a very good yield this season.

We also appreciate Mr. Temesgen for his clear explanation. As you just heard from him, the habit of timely monitoring developed by Ethiopian farmers is saving their maize from being destroyed by the Fall armyworm. As the saying goes, “Prevention is better than cure.” When farmers monitor their fields, they reduce the risk of losing crops to the pest.