The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations will organize a capacity building workshops for countries within the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) region on the effective management of the Fall Armyworm (FAW).  The workshops will take place in Abuja, Nigeria, from 5^th to 10^th September 2017.

Fall Armyworm (FAW) new invasive pest has invaded and rapidly spread across many countries of Africa. The worm is damaging crops, especially maize across the continent and has the potential to cause significant yield losses. The pest is native to the Americas, where farmers and researchers have been managing and studying it for many years.

This training workshop is in response to recommendations of an ECOWAS meeting on regional plant pest and disease surveillance (Accra, June 2017) which emphasized on the need to strengthen members’ states capacity to manage FAW. Last July, in Accra, FAO also hosted South-South experts meetings and an integrated pest management curriculum development for FAW. Key outcomes included comprehensive actions plans for capacity building for plant protection institutions, research and extension services of the Sub-Sahara region.

The training aims at strengthening the capacity of National institutions involved in plant protection to provide support to farmers to effectively contain and manage the FAW. Participants are expected to be armed with standardized tools and methodologies to carry out different types of assessments, monitoring and management approaches to curb the impact of the pest.

What: Training Workshop to Strengthen Technical Capacity of ECOWAS Member states to manage FAW.

Participants: Crop Protection, Extension Staff and farmers’ fields schools master trainers and facilitators from the 15 ECOWAS Countries.

When: Tuesday 5^th September 2017.  Opening at 10.00am

Where:  Reiz Continental Hotel, Central Business District, Abuja, Nigeria.

Who: (Key Speakers): Chief Audu Ogbeh, Honourable Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development. HE Tchambakou Ayassor (ECOWAS Commissioner for Agriculture, Environment and Water Resources) Mr. Suffyan Koroma FAO Nigeria Country Representative. And other speakers.

Media Contacts:

David Karls Tsokar

National Communication Officer, FAO Nigeria, [email protected], +234 (0)805 343 7947