Luxor, Egypt - Protecting the livelihoods and food security of smallholders, including women and young people living in areas affected by the Fall Armyworm, and increasing the awareness of key stakeholders on monitoring, supervision and integrated management of the worm, are key objectives of launching the Emergency response project to enhance the national capacity of Egypt for early warning, monitoring and management of the Fall Armyworm.

The project also aims at minimizing the worm's impact and controlling worm outbreaks by enhancing its monitoring and integrated management capabilities at all levels.

Today, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO), in collaboration with the Ministry of Agriculture and Land Reclamation, launched the project on "Emergency response project to enhance the national capacity of Egypt for early warning, monitoring and management of the Fall Armyworm" to raise awareness of partners and stakeholders on the dangers of the worm, the damage it may cause and how to manage it.

The project was launched during an opening workshop held today in Luxor, in the presence of the directors of agricultural directorates in Aswan, Luxor, Qena, Assiut, Sohag, Minya, Beni Suef and Fayoum, managers of the agricultural pest control administration, research centres, public and private sector companies related to family farming, agricultural extensions, relevant local civil organizations, representatives of farmers and farmers' associations and media professionals.

In May 2019, the presence of the Fall Armyworm was recorded on maize in the governorates of Aswan, Luxor and Qena in Upper Egypt. The Fall Armyworm is an insect pest that can infect more than 80 plant species and cause serious damage to strategically important grain crops such as maize, rice and sorghum, as well as vegetable and cotton crops.

In his opening speech, Mohammed Yacoub, FAO's assistant representative in Egypt, said: “FAO has worked with the Ministry of Agriculture since 2018 to support surveillance programs and provide Traps, as well as identified samples collected, in addition to four training courses that were held for pest control specialists, three of which were in Luxor and one in Tanta".

He added: " Today, we are launching a new project through FAO's technical cooperation programs, which aims to continue supporting the plans of the Ministry of Agriculture plans in handling this pest and prevent it from spreading and reaching the places of maize and other crops in central and northern Egypt".

Ali Suleiman, Advisor to the Minister of Agriculture for Quarantine Affairs and Chairman of the Ministerial Committee on Plant Health, said: “The Ministry has taken precautionary measures before the pest reaches new areas, which led to delays in its arrival, and reduced the economic damage caused by it contrary to previous expectations from some American experts who predicted that within 6 months after the pest reaches Sudan, it will reach the Delta of Egypt, meanwhile the pest is still confined in only three provinces: Aswan, Luxor and Qena, and some centers in Sohag".

He added: "The delay was largely due to the efforts to control locusts on the borders with Sudan, which affected the Fall Armyworm indirectly, and despite the seriousness of the pest and the seriousness of its threat, there is no need for panic nor for an exaggerated reaction, and we must follow the strategic plan developed by the Ministry of Agriculture, as we invite you to participate in discussions regarding the project’s activities".

It is worth mentioning that the original habitat of this insect is the tropical and subtropical regions of the Americas and the Fall Armyworm has been able to move to more than 54 countries in Africa and Asia during the last four years, and was recently registered in Egypt in 2019.

During 2019, FAO provided a number of training courses for eight governorates in southern Egypt, including Aswan, Luxor, Qena, Assiut, Sohag, Minya, Beni Sueif and Fayoum, where the FAO Regional Office, in cooperation with the Country Office, provided technical support by transferring the expertise of the countries that faced this pest and secured the materials needed to investigate the pest, from traps and mobile devices to facilitate the use of appropriate applications to obtain accurate information. In addition to having held a regional training workshop for specialists in the production of vital biological enemies on the techniques used to identify, produce and launch vital biological enemies against the Fall Armyworm, and supported as well as equipped a number of vital enemy production factories in Giza and Sohag, which is considered one of the means of biocontrol of the environment and the safest for human health.

The total area of maize cultivation in Egypt reached 601,920 hectares in 2017, while production was 7.1 million tons. In the event of a Fall Armyworm outbreak, this will have a short- and long-term impact on agricultural production, food security and the feed industry.