Combatting the invasive fall armyworm in Africa

What essentially curtailed the invasion was the use of pesticide. In Tanzania, it generated income for 250 village-based advisors, who sold 45,000 liters of pesticides during two crop seasons in 2017 and 2018. These advisors received training on pesticide products and the use of personal protective equipment and knapsack sprayers so that they could earn additional income providing spraying services.

In Ghana, farmers who received free, government-subsidized pesticides experienced less crop damages than those who did not. The service providers who sprayed their farms received training from the ADVANCE II Project and the Ghanaian government in pesticide safety, first aid and customer care, proper handling, and the assembly and servicing of knapsack sprayers. They also learned about regulations for transporting pesticides and safely disposing unused chemicals and containers. To ensure a sustainable supply chain for their services, the ADVANCE II Project also connected them with local banks and businesses.

Because fall armyworm was new to the continent, its management could not happen without public awareness campaigns. From radio advertisements to call centers, the projects spread messages of how to scout and monitor outbreaks using pheromone traps, the data from which informed the countries’ ministries of agriculture.

In Tanzania, 77 percent of farmers surveyed who had heard the campaigns reported adopting the promoted prevention measures. In Ghana, 68 percent of farmers adopted the promoted management technologies in 2017, and 83 percent adopted them by 2018. 

Project staff in Ghana, as part of the national taskforce, provided media sensitization to prevent exaggerated reports of the outbreak, while also conveying the seriousness of the threat. This shifted responses from “identify, panic, and spray” to the safe and appropriately timed use of pesticides to manage the problem. 

Field trial demonstration plots also allowed smallholder farmers to observe the application of pesticides and understand the thresholds for when to act. These trials helped officials determine optimal spraying at various plant stages, which fostered trust among local farmers. 

Commercial linkages— not governments alone — are what made the use of safe and effective pest management practices continue. By 2020, the threat was manageable in many parts of Africa, especially where strong buyer-seller relationships and market incentives for pesticide use existed.