Firstpost
  • Home
  • Video Shows
    Vantage Firstpost America Firstpost Africa First Sports
  • World
    US News
  • Explainers
  • News
    India Opinion Cricket Tech Entertainment Sports Health Photostories
  • Asia Cup 2025
Apple Incorporated Modi ji Justin Trudeau Trending

Sections

  • Home
  • Live TV
  • Videos
  • Shows
  • World
  • India
  • Explainers
  • Opinion
  • Sports
  • Cricket
  • Health
  • Tech/Auto
  • Entertainment
  • Web Stories
  • Business
  • Impact Shorts

Shows

  • Vantage
  • Firstpost America
  • Firstpost Africa
  • First Sports
  • Fast and Factual
  • Between The Lines
  • Flashback
  • Live TV

Events

  • Raisina Dialogue
  • Independence Day
  • Champions Trophy
  • Delhi Elections 2025
  • Budget 2025
  • US Elections 2024
  • Firstpost Defence Summit
Trending:
  • Nepal protests
  • Nepal Protests Live
  • Vice-presidential elections
  • iPhone 17
  • IND vs PAK cricket
  • Israel-Hamas war
fp-logo
Brace yourself Asia: alien pest is munching its way around the globe, raising alarm
Whatsapp Facebook Twitter
Whatsapp Facebook Twitter
Apple Incorporated Modi ji Justin Trudeau Trending

Sections

  • Home
  • Live TV
  • Videos
  • Shows
  • World
  • India
  • Explainers
  • Opinion
  • Sports
  • Cricket
  • Health
  • Tech/Auto
  • Entertainment
  • Web Stories
  • Business
  • Impact Shorts

Shows

  • Vantage
  • Firstpost America
  • Firstpost Africa
  • First Sports
  • Fast and Factual
  • Between The Lines
  • Flashback
  • Live TV

Events

  • Raisina Dialogue
  • Independence Day
  • Champions Trophy
  • Delhi Elections 2025
  • Budget 2025
  • US Elections 2024
  • Firstpost Defence Summit
  • Home
  • Tech
  • science
  • Brace yourself Asia: alien pest is munching its way around the globe, raising alarm

Brace yourself Asia: alien pest is munching its way around the globe, raising alarm

The Associated Press • March 20, 2019, 13:27:16 IST
Whatsapp Facebook Twitter

The worms can cause damage at all stages of a corn crop, but the worst may be when the larvae.

Advertisement
Subscribe Join Us
Add as a preferred source on Google
Prefer
Firstpost
On
Google
Brace yourself Asia: alien pest is munching its way around the globe, raising alarm

Fall armyworms, a longtime American pest, are munching their way around the globe, raising alarm now in Asia after entrenching themselves in Africa. Experts say the insect was first found outside the Americas in 2016, in Africa, where it has infested up to half of some crops of maize, sorghum and millet. It’s now spread through Yemen and South Asia to Thailand and China. This new arrival to her territory worries Uraporn Nounart, a specialist on farm pests at Thailand’s Agriculture Department. “We never had this one before. They just were found late last year and in January in this area. It’s a big problem,” she said while visiting farms recently in Kanchanaburi province, northwest of Bangkok. The worms can cause damage at all stages of a corn crop, but the worst may be when the larvae, pinky-sized caterpillars turn sweet corn cobs to mush. The incursions of the alien species threaten to upend the balance between costs and returns for farmers in Thailand and elsewhere. Pesticides are costly, toxic and don’t always work. [caption id=“attachment_6295611” align=“alignnone” width=“1280”]A farmer shows a corn shoot infested with fall armyworm at his farm in Narayangaon village in the western state of Maharashtra, India, December 18, 2018. Picture taken December 18, 2018. REUTERS/Rajendra Jadhav - RC1E5F36E620 A farmer shows a corn shoot infested with fall armyworm at his farm in Narayangaon village in the western state of Maharashtra. Image: Reuters[/caption] In its native regions, from Argentina to northern Canada depending on the season, the bug’s natural enemies — predators, parasites and pathogens such as bacteria or viruses — help keep it in check. But the new habitats may lack some of those defences, the United Nations’ Food and Agricultural Organization say. It’s convening a conference in Bangkok this week to help share information and strategies on battling the pest. Keeping it in check is an urgent priority: Even though Asia is mostly known for rice growing, maize is an important staple crop and a crucial source of feed for poultry and livestock. In the cornfields in Kanchanaburi, there were armyworms in all stages of the crop, from seedlings to knee-high to “elephant’s eye” high. Some local farmers were working hard to limit their losses by pulling the tops off stalks grown for baby corn and discarding them to limit how much damage the worms could do. That tactic causes the plant to sprout new ears that can be harvested later. Organic farmers don’t use the usual farm chemicals so they can sell the waste corn stalks as cattle fodder. Spraying with biomaterials like fungi and threadworms that may be parasites of the worms can help, but some fields still lost about a third of the first baby corn harvest. “We’ve never seen anything like this,” said one farmer, Sanae. In another field, Thanwa, a younger farmer, sought help and had his fields sprayed using drones. For taller plants, that’s about the only way for the small-scale farmers to get pesticides up onto the affected parts of the plant once the worms are established. Swaddled against the burning sun, Uraporn Nournart and her team of young scientists scrambled through the fields, peeking into corn husks and pulling apart damaged stalks to collect worms and eggs for monitoring. They’re conducting trials in fields like the one Sanae was working her way through, a tranquil plot of waist-high corn ringed by banana trees. Charuwat Taekul, an entomologist at the Department of Agriculture who specializes in microscopic parasitic wasps, was collecting egg clusters to use in his research into natural enemies of the worms. It’s unclear if such wasps would be effective in keeping the fall armyworms under control, but it’s one of the various strategies being considered. “Putting into place adequate management measures once a country gets invaded by FAW is important,” said Marjon Fredrix, an expert with the U.N.’s FAO based in Bangkok. “However, the likelihood of further spread is real.” She notes that the worm’s adult moths can fly more than 100 kilometres (60 miles) a night, even farther if they’re carried by the wind. The best-case scenario, says Fredrix, would be farmers successfully scouting for and finding the worms early on, so they can keep them under control. The FAO has developed an app that teaches the basics of how to find and deal with fall armyworms. “This new pest needs to be managed in years to come, and farmers will need to develop skills to do so in a sustainable manner,” Fredrix said. The help came a bit too late for Yodsapon, a farmer in Tha Muang. He follows Uraporn’s team stoically as it winds its way through his wrecked field of sweet corn. At first glance, the 2-meter-high (6.5-foot-high) stalks look vigorous, with good-sized ears that are nearly picking a size. But a closer look shows holes in the stalks where the worms have worked their way inside, munching ear after ear into yellowish-brown mush. The family has other sources of income, a small eco-hostel set in their tropical garden. But income from that is unstable, and the corn crop will be missed, Yodsapon says. He’s thinking hard about what to do next: switch to another crop? Cassava? Potato? A good harvest from the field would have netted 2,000-3,000 baht ($65-$100), he says. He expects no income from this one, and spraying repeatedly to try to vanquish the worm could triple his costs. “In that case, I can’t afford it,” he says.

Tags
America Agriculture Crops Maize global pests Pest attack
End of Article
Latest News
Find us on YouTube
Subscribe
End of Article

Top Stories

Israel targets top Hamas leaders in Doha; Qatar, Iran condemn strike as violation of sovereignty

Israel targets top Hamas leaders in Doha; Qatar, Iran condemn strike as violation of sovereignty

Nepal: Oli to continue until new PM is sworn in, nation on edge as all branches of govt torched

Nepal: Oli to continue until new PM is sworn in, nation on edge as all branches of govt torched

Who is CP Radhakrishnan, India's next vice-president?

Who is CP Radhakrishnan, India's next vice-president?

Israel informed US ahead of strikes on Hamas leaders in Doha, says White House

Israel informed US ahead of strikes on Hamas leaders in Doha, says White House

Israel targets top Hamas leaders in Doha; Qatar, Iran condemn strike as violation of sovereignty

Israel targets top Hamas leaders in Doha; Qatar, Iran condemn strike as violation of sovereignty

Nepal: Oli to continue until new PM is sworn in, nation on edge as all branches of govt torched

Nepal: Oli to continue until new PM is sworn in, nation on edge as all branches of govt torched

Who is CP Radhakrishnan, India's next vice-president?

Who is CP Radhakrishnan, India's next vice-president?

Israel informed US ahead of strikes on Hamas leaders in Doha, says White House

Israel informed US ahead of strikes on Hamas leaders in Doha, says White House

Top Shows

Vantage Firstpost America Firstpost Africa First Sports
Latest News About Firstpost
Most Searched Categories
  • Web Stories
  • World
  • India
  • Explainers
  • Opinion
  • Sports
  • Cricket
  • Tech/Auto
  • Entertainment
  • IPL 2025
NETWORK18 SITES
  • News18
  • Money Control
  • CNBC TV18
  • Forbes India
  • Advertise with us
  • Sitemap
Firstpost Logo

is on YouTube

Subscribe Now

Copyright @ 2024. Firstpost - All Rights Reserved

About Us Contact Us Privacy Policy Cookie Policy Terms Of Use
Home Video Shorts Live TV