Posted on March, 20, 2023 at 09:59 am
Bungoma county has partnered with Food and Agriculture Organization to intensify the fight against fall armyworms as planting season starts.
Last year, most maize farms in the parts of Bumula, Sirisia, Kanduyi and Mt Elgon were affected by the armyworms that led to low crop production.
Speaking at Mabanga Agricultural Training Center on Friday during the launch of the global action project, Jingyuan Xia, director of FAO, said his organisation has picked eight countries to be demonstration areas of the projects to fight the pests.
Xia said armyworms have been a major threat to maize production in Africa, affirming that the project will address the challenge and allow farmers to produce huge quantities of maize so that they can import the surplus and mint cash.
“Western Kenya has good weather for growing maize but due to the armyworm threats it affects most of the farms, that is why we have come to partner with Bungoma so that farmers can get integrated pest control mechanisms,” Xia said.
He, however, said that Mabanga Agriculture training Centre in Bungoma will be a demonstration centre where farmers can visit and be shown how they can fight fall armyworms on their farms.
“We have launched this project here purposely to offer farmers an avenue where they can come and learn integrated ways of pest control.”
The FAO director said the centre will offer a sustainable management of fall armyworms, asking the county department of agriculture to support farmers to get the knowledge.
To ensure the country’s food security, the knowledge should be shared with the farmers early, saying the centre will also be monitoring the armyworms' situations in the region.
Bungoma Agriculture executiveMonica Fedha lauded FAO for picking Kenya to be a demonstration country in the armyworm control. She told the Star the project will also be spread to the Manani in Bumula and Chemwa in Kabuchai farm field schools.
The executive said the effect of fall armyworms reduces maize production by 50 per cent.
Source: The Star