CGA and CABI Partnership for the Management of Fall Armyworm (FAW) among Cereal Farmers

For a long period of time, Kenya has depended on cereals like maize, sorghum and millet as a principle staple food. Household diets hugely rely on cereals as a main carbohydrate and starch source. In the recent past, production of this important crops has been hampered by factors including poor farming practices, non-use of quality inputs etc. In 2016, the Fall Army Worm emerged as a threat to productivity and production of cereals with losses of up to 100% of field crop being recorded if the worm was not controlled. By 2018, around 80% of maize crop had been affected in Kenya.

The government, development partners and private sector has employed a multi- faceted approach to control the FAW. This includes dissemination of information on management of FAW, scouting and spraying of affected fields, research into resistant seeds and research and dissemination of biopesticides that can control the pest.

CABI’S Action on Invasives (AoI) Project aims to tackle problems related to invasive pest species affecting crop production in Kenya. One of the themes under the program is the development and promotion of best practice solutions including promoting integrated pest management approaches and safer use of chemicals in crop pest protection as a sustainable way to manage pest infestations. AoI builds on past activities of the Plantwise Program that involved employing mass extension campaigns to inform and alert large numbers of farmers to pest and disease outbreaks and deliver messages to prevent or manage the problem. The two programs have developed educational videos to create awareness around integrated pest management approaches that use a range of cultural and non-chemical methods as a suitable option and to precede consideration of the use of chemical options in the management of the Fall Armyworm (FAW). The videos also cover safer and rationale chemical use. They complement past videos on the management of FAW that were developed and shared through village video screenings and through mobile phones

CABI partnered with CGA from October 2020, to disseminate the video content on safer management of FAW to increase knowledge on safe handling of chemicals and the use of bio-pesticides technologies as a safer option or to precede the option of using chemical pesticides. The videos have been disseminated through training of Fall Army Champions to reach at least 15,000 small holder maize producing farmers within Machakos, Busia, Siaya, Meru, Bungoma, Nakuru, Uasin Gishu and Trans Nzoia Counties.