By: CropLife International

Fall Armyworm has arrived in Kenya to stay, but while the government develops a long-term strategy, farmers need ready and accessible solutions now.

From a distance, Wycliffe Ngoda’s two acres of shiny green maize crops look healthy and lush. But the tell-tale holes in the leaves and debris on the stems give away an increasingly dangerous secret hidden in more and more maize fields across Kenya and sub-Saharan Africa. The rampant Fall Armyworm caterpillar is once again threatening harvests across the continent for a second year.

The pest, which arrived in Africa from the Americas in 2016, affected around 50,000 hectares of maize in Kenya alone last year, costing 25 per cent of the crop, according to government officials.

This year, the losses could be as high as 50 per cent, threatening Kenya’s food security and farmers’ economic security in a country where the average annual consumption of maize surpasses 100kg per person.

Signs of the Fall Armyworm on maize crops in Mbale, Vihiga county, Kenya.

“This is one of the deadliest crop pests in the world,” said Dr B.M. Prasanna, director of the global maize programme at CGIAR’s International Maize and Wheat Improvement Centre (CIMMYT), based in Nairobi. “It can have as many as six life cycles in a year and each female moth can lay as many as 1,500 to 2,000 eggs.

“There’s no single solution that will fight it in all the smallholder contexts. But we’re not starting from scratch.”

Government delegates and experts have recently travelled to Brazil to learn how Fall Armyworm is controlled in the Americas, including the use of pest-resistant varieties of maize.

Scientists at the African Agricultural Technology Foundation (AATF) have also found improved yields in controlled trials of transgenic crops as part of the Water Efficient Maize for Africa (WEMA) initiative.

A scientist at the African Agricultural Technology Foundation labs in Nairobi working on plant material.

But while the Kenyan government considers such developments as part of a long-term strategy to reduce the impact of Fall Armyworm, the pest continues to pose a threat in the short-term.

In their desperation to ward off the caterpillar, which can reach the size of a little finger, some farmers even resorted to mixing homemade pesticides.

“I came across Fall Armyworm last year,” said Mr Ngoda, 65, from Mbale, Vihiga county. “We were taken unaware. It’s something that had not occurred here before. The attack was very fast and furious.

“We started looking for local solutions. We took liquid detergents and mixed it with some ash. Eventually we succeeded in fighting it off but the damage was already done. I lost about 50 per cent of my crop, others lost 70 per cent.

“We were using local innovations but it was more like guesswork.”

Lucas Wekesa, a plant doctor with CABI, teaches farmers how to identify Fall Armyworm on their crops.

This year, Mr Ngoda said he was better prepared thanks to training in detection and responsible pesticide use provided by the county government and NGOs such as Farm Input Promotions Africa (FIPs-Africa). He said he had applied pesticide to his crops once so far.

The advice included treating crops with pesticides in the morning or afternoon when the caterpillars are active, and spraying to the side to avoid direct contact with the product. FIPs-Africa also contracts specialist sprayers to help farmers safely apply the correct pesticide.

In the meantime, Kenya’s Pest Control Products Board (PCPB) has fast-tracked its approval process for products that can help tackle Fall Armyworm to help address the threat in the short-term. But the challenge in rural areas is ensuring the best advice and information reaches the smallholders.

Wycliffe Ngoda, 65, and his grandson inspect their maize crop for Fall Armyworm at his farm in Mbale, Kenya.

CropLife Kenya organises popular county farmer training sessions every month and CABI has more than 120 PlantWise clinics across Kenya where smallholders can bring in samples of their damaged crop to get expert advice on the necessary remedy.

But more is needed to teach farmers how to live with a pest that is here to stay.

“I wish we had more people,” said Mr Ngoda. “Sometimes, farmers don’t seek solutions and expert advice. We need more surveillance and on farm visits.

“I’m normally guaranteed 40 bags minimum. Last year, I didn’t get 20. I thank God I have a small family and none of them are going to school, otherwise it would have been a total disaster.”

How much do you know about Fall Armyworm? Click this and find out!  

By: CropLife International

Dr. Esther Kioko (far right in jean jacket) discussing vegetables in Mbiuni Market.

Dr. Esther Kioko, a senior research scientist with the National Museums of Kenya, is using her background in entomology to study the relationship between pollinators and vegetable viability in the arid regions of Kenya. Pollinators are an important part of agroecology in that they serve as a natural middle-man between agriculture and the environment. Thirty five percent of the food crop produced worldwide depends on pollinators, and with more than 25,000 species of bees in the world, understanding them is essential.

“The main objective of our project was to address some of the major gaps that we see in the understanding of insect pollinators,” Dr. Kioko says.

One such gap was the understanding of pest management strategies and how they affect the pollinators. To encourage better pest management choices, Dr. Kioko and her team advocate for integrated pest management—selecting the correct pest management products to use when necessary, applying them at the right time, and in the correct way. They are also making information on pollinators available through the Museum, and are training young plant scientists in these areas about how to maintain pollinator health with support from the Bayer Bee Care Centre.

“We also saw a gap in how people see the relationship between pollinators and the vegetables that are grown,” Dr. Kioko says. “How the pollinators affect vegetable use, vegetable quality, and vegetable quantity in the arid regions.”

A large portion of the population in the area are growing indigenous African vegetables—such as amaranth, pumpkin, and cowpeas—as well as more wide-spread varieties like sweet peppers, tomatoes, cucumber and squash.  She says the crops are suffering from the effects of climate change which can negatively impact food sources for pollinators.

“We are addressing the issues of climate change and lack of pollinator knowledge through agroecology because as we think of vegetable production, those elements come into play,” Dr. Kioko says.

The smaller, indigenous systems in Africa and the large-scale systems in other parts of the world equally rely on pollinators as an element of agroecology.

Dr. Kioko says that even though research is being done and projects are being undertaken, there is still a need for even greater capacity building and incorporation of agroecology within agricultural production systems. She says that although the ecosystems are facing challenges,  there are ways to help—for example, providing alternative floral resources for pollinators when crops are not flowering.

“We need to be innovative in finding management practices that increase the farmers understanding of the various ecological processes and at the same time, boost production,” Dr. Kioko says. “With climate change, there are challenges we can’t just ignore, we have to go the extra mile to make sure sustainable agriculture is enhanced for everyone.”

This article is originally posted at CropLife International webpage – Plant Science Post. You may view original article here. 

By: CropLife International

Last year we featured Dr. Mfegue Crescence Virginie, an agronomist from Cameroon, in our #FoodHeroes campaign. Working as the Cocoa Swollen Shoot Virus Program Manager for the World Cocoa Foundation in West Africa, she explained how this viral disease can be damaging for farmers, resulting in more than 15% of global cocoa losses. One year on we followed-up with her to find out the facts behind the recent story that chocolate is on track to go extinct in 40 years.

How did you become a plant scientist?

As a teenager, I was inspired by women scientists such as Marie-Curie and I wanted to contribute to the sciences. During my studies, encouraged by successes and learning from failures, I never stopped dreaming about becoming a scientist. Today, I am an agronomist and I hold a PhD in plant pathology, with a special focus on plant-pathogen interactions.

My commitment to science and plant pathology was reinforced in 2008 when I had the opportunity to take part in a Borlaug Fellowship Program (supported by the United States Department of Agriculture and the World Cocoa Foundation) at North Carolina State University. There I met Dr. Jean Ristaino (then a professor in the University’s Department of Plant Pathology) who made a precious gift to me: a book she co-authored, entitled “Pioneering women in plant pathology”.

Why is West Africa home to 70% of the world’s cocoa production?

Cocoa successfully spread throughout Central and West Africa after being introduced to the West African island Sao-Tome in the late 1800s. When cocoa production declined in South America, West Africa took the lead and became the largest cocoa producing region in the 20th century.

Factors explaining the lead of West Africa in cocoa production include: growth preferences characterized by a hot and humid climate, and West Africa’s situation on the so-called cocoa belt around the Equator; a favorable governmental policy environment that promotes cocoa farming; investment into cocoa research; and availability of land and labor. All of these helped to increase production in Africa.

What is your favorite thing about your job and working with cocoa?

Cocoa is one of the most complex and challenging agricultural sectors:

1. cocoa is essentially produced by smallholder farmers in West Africa, often poor rural inhabitants who rely on cocoa for their income;
2. 70% of global cocoa is produced in West Africa, but more than 80% of its consumers are in Europe, North America and Asia – Africa consumes less than 4% of cocoa products;
3. cocoa production in West Africa faces numerous biotic and abiotic threats, in addition to the use of low yield varieties, poor agricultural practices and aging farms.

These things combined can result in a lack of interest in cocoa farming, putting the continued sustainable production of cocoa at risk.

In 2015, I was recruited by the World Cocoa Foundation (WCF) to run a Program on Cocoa Swollen Shoot Disease Virus (CSSV) management and eradication, the most important threat to cocoa in West Africa. My job is about managing the forefront of a challenge that touches millions of lives, from the producers who grow it to the consumers to purchase it. I’m honored to be able to bring some innovative tools to help unlock the puzzle, and at the personal level to ensure cocoa sustainability in West Africa, while bringing brighter days for cocoa farmers. That’s what I am proud of.

A recent article on business insider warned that cocoa plants are under threat of devastation; and that chocolate is on track to go extinct in 40 years. Is there any truth to this? And how can plant science help to stop this?

At WCF we are aware that, since 2013, a series of media articles have caused cocoa farmers and chocolate lovers alike to worry that chocolate could become “extinct” in the next few decades. These stories tend to selectively interpret research carried out by the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT). The good news is that we really do not need to start planning for a world without chocolate in the immediate future.

We know that climate change will impact where we can farm cocoa in the future — it is increasingly clear that some land will become less suitable for cocoa production, and some may become more suitable based on the prevailing models. The CIAT models are useful for understanding long-term trends, but are based on a continued ‘business as usual’ approach to growing cocoa. But, at WCF, our work on cocoa sustainability is anything but ‘business as usual’. We are working with partners to identify relevant agricultural practices  that can help farmers mitigate the impact of climate change on cocoa.

For example, cocoa, like most tropical crops, needs a high level of humidity to grow, so it could be affected by lengthy dry seasons, changes in precipitation, and pest and diseases that change as a result of changes in carbon dioxide and temperature. Ongoing studies at the University of Reading – and sister institutions – on water use efficiency and other physiological parameters will provide further insights on how to grow climate smart cocoa that is more resilient to the impacts of climate change. In the meantime, we plan to initiate trials in multiple locations to identify tolerant cocoa genotypes in exiting collections and germplasms around the world.

What’s your favorite type of chocolate?

Dark-milk chocolate with an average of 70% of cocoa butter is my favorite. I am passionate about the traditional flavor attributes of cocoa from West Africa, but at the same time I have a slight taste preference for South American organic cocoa. This could probably be due to some of my readings on the Mayans and Aztec bitter and hot beverage “Xocoatll”, but the “Food of the Gods” still has a long journey, as Ed Seguine would say.

This is an extract from the full interview, which is available in the blog. Click here to read more about Virginie and cocoa, including more information on the World Cocoa Foundation (WCF), the threats cocoa farmers face, and how the WCF is helping improve their livelihoods.

You can find out more about West African cocoa farmers on our Cocoa In West Africa: Training through local partnerships page.

By: CropLife International

The first building block of a chocolate bar, a chocolate cake, or a brownie is the cocoa plant, which is mainly grown in West Africa. The second is the farmers who grow it. CropLife International trained cocoa farmers in Ghana to manage pests responsibly and sustainably so their crop can thrive. Agnes Quaye, a cocoa farmer, talks about the reality of growing cocoa.

Find out more about Agnes and other West African cocoa farmers on our Cocoa In West Africa: Training through local partnerships page.