Cairo, Egypt - The Fall Armyworm represents a serious threat to Egyptian and regional food security, especially as it attacks many basic crops such as corn, sorghum, rice and wheat.

With the intensity and ferocity of the Fall Armyworm, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations announced the launching of the Global Action initiative for the Fall Armyworm control, starting from its responsibility to protect plants and coordinate international efforts to fight against pests that pose a major threat to local, regional and international food security.

With the participation of officials from the Plant Protection Department in both headquarters the main and the regional of the food and agriculture organization and the participation of representatives from 12 countries from the Middle East and North Africa region, The first coordination meeting to implement the global action for Fall Armyworm Control of the food and agriculture organization (FAO) was held in the Near East and North Africa, where Egypt was chosen as a model country, in addition to Sudan, Yemen and Mauritania as pilot countries, which will allow Egypt to experiment different tools to fight against the pest and design and test a package of integrated management measures for Fall Armyworm Pest, with significant support from FAO.

Establish effective mechanisms for sharing information, expertise, resources and technology to deal with the pest.

Jingyuan Xia, Head of the Plant Production and Protection Division at the food and agriculture organization, said that working together to fight against this pest through the Global Action Initiative receives the support and assistance of the Director General of the Food and agriculture organization and its senior officials, stressing the need to establish a coordination mechanism through groups that have been formed in the eight regions of the world, besides setting up effective mechanisms in order to exchange information, expertise, resources and use technology to deal with this pest.

The FAO Regional Office for the Near East and North Africa provided more than 25,000 traps and 80,000 pheromone baits, theoretically covering 50,000 hectares, and scientific support was provided to identify suspect samples, in partnership with the Center for Agriculture and Bioscience International. In addition to training more than 700 specialists on identifying and monitoring Fall Armyworm and training more than 250 specialists in biological control on collective breeding of natural enemies, in partnership with the International Center for Insect Physiology and Ecology in Kenya, and purchasing tools and equipment worth more than $ 70,000 to support the production facilities of the natural enemy of this pest.

In this regard, Serge Nakouzi, Deputy Regional Representative for the Near East and North Africa of FAO and Acting Regional Representative, said that many countries in the region are facing great challenges due to this pest that affects 80 types of agricultural crops, and this pest was able to enter the region through Sudan in 2017, Yemen in 2018 then Egypt in 2019, then it has spread now to Mauritania, Emirates, Syria and Jordan. FAO has provided technical and financial support to these countries, while scientists kept warning of the spread of this pest in all countries of the region, and in light of information indicating that its damage has reached 96% in some regions.

The pest infects 13 Egyptian governorates, with an average infection of 1.5% within two years

Egypt has started cooperating with the Food and Agriculture Organization since May 2019 in controlling the Fall Armyworm that has now reached 13 Egyptian governorates, with an average infection rate of 1.5% in maize crops within two years, due to the reliance on the risk prevention mechanism, which greatly reduced the spread of the pest in Egypt.

Egypt was chosen as a model country to implement the activities of the Global Action based on being the largest producer of corn in the region while cultivating more than one million hectares of maize. With a national annual production of more than 7.5 million tons, which represents 90% of the production of corn in the Near East and North Africa region. In addition to the availability of a network of agricultural services, research centers, and the necessary infrastructure for testing pesticides and other control methods.

Mohamed Abdel-Majeed, head of the pesticides committee, national coordinator of the joint emergency project with FAO and the national focal point of the Global Action initiative for the Fall Armyworm Control, expressed his optimism about the possibility of tightening control over this pest due to the technical and financial support provided by FAO, In addition to Egypt's expertise, capabilities, qualified human resources and infrastructure. Referring to the Ministry of Agriculture and Land Reclamation, in collaboration with FAO, to finalize an action plan based on extensive studies and surveys of farmers to identify their ability to use modern technological methods, using eco-friendly pesticides and being completely distant from pesticides with side effects on human and animal health.

Among the most important outcomes of the global action in the Near East and North Africa region is the establishment of a network of national focal points that meet regularly on a monthly basis and exchange data and information in a distinctive and useful way, in addition to the participation of regional scientific and technical organizations such as the Arab Society for Plant Protection and the Near East Plant Protection Organization.

Nasredin Hag Elamin, FAO representative in Egypt, said that once the presence of Fall Armyworm was confirmed in Egypt, the FAO began setting up technical cooperation programs to provide support, train a large number of specialists, provide tools, fisheries and special methods to control this pest and assist officials in developing a plan and providing technical and scientific consultations, as well as developing Egyptian laboratories for collective breeding of natural enemies.

During the meeting, representatives of the national FAO offices in Mauritania, Sudan and Yemen and the national focal points in those countries presented the actual situation of Fall Armyworm, and the efforts made to confront this scourge.

It is noteworthy that the original habitat of this insect is the tropical and subtropical regions of the American continent and the Fall Armyworm was able to move to more than 54 countries in Africa and Asia during the last four years, and its entry was recently recorded in Egypt in 2019.

During 2019, FAO provided a number of training courses for specialists from twenty-two Egyptian governorates. The FAO Regional Office, in cooperation with the country office, provided technical support by transferring the experiences of countries that faced this pest and securing the necessary materials to investigate the pest from pheromone traps and Mobile phones to facilitate the use of appropriate applications to obtain accurate information.

It is noteworthy that the total cultivated area of maize in Egypt amounted to 601 920 hectares in 2017, while production reached 7.1 million tons. In case of a Fall Armyworm outbreak, this will have a short and long-term impact on agricultural production, food security and the forage industry. Thus, it affects millions of livelihoods of different value chain operators on various commodities in the country.