Fall armyworm invades crops across Asia, smallholders worst hit

[webfact]

Fall armyworm invades crops across Asia, smallholders worst hit

By Patpicha Tanakasempipat and Naveen Thukral

 

A farmer shows a Fall Army Worm in a maize field at Pak Chong district, Nakhon Ratchasima province, Thailand June 12, 2019. Picture taken on June 12, 2019. REUTERS/Soe Zeya Tun

 

BAN NONG TOR, Thailand/SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Looking out at his empty, red-earth field, Thai farmer Puang Timdon said his two-week-old maize crop didn't stand a chance against the fall armyworm pest.

 

"All the 8 rai (1.28 hectare) I planted were all heavily infested," said the 42-year-old from his farm in Ban Nong Tor town in Pak Chong district, 180 km (120 miles) northeast of the capital Bangkok.

 

"The worm ate the whole field in three days, leaving so much damage that it wasn't worth saving."

 

Fall armyworm, a caterpillar that got the name because it invades croplands in droves, much like an army, has rapidly spread across Asia since it was detected in southern India late last year. Fields in Bangladesh, Myanmar, Vietnam, Indonesia and Taiwan have fallen victim. In Thailand, it has badly affected the country's corn crop, much of which is sold to the animal feed industry.

 

In recent months, the pest has also been found in 18 of China's 33 provinces and regions and is now threatening to spread across the key corn region in the northeast. China is the world's second biggest corn consumer and producer.

 

"It is a major issue for crops. It could pose a food security threat," said Phin Ziebell, an agribusiness economist at National Australia Bank. "Management cost is an issue for small farmers."

 

(Graphic: Spread of fall armyworm in Africa and Asia -

 

Marjon Fredrix, an agricultural officer at the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), said some countries have reported damage to crops hit by the pest at 1.2% to about 10%, while others had put the figure at 20% to 40%.

 

"Once the fall armyworm has arrived, it can't be eradicated, and farmers will have to manage it," Fredrix said.

 

A dip in the production of corn, largely used in Asia to feed animals, could force hog, poultry and cattle growers to rely on expensive imports and dent incomes of millions of small farmers.

 

The fall armyworm invasion comes against the backdrop of planting delays in the United States which lifted benchmark Chicago corn futures <Cv1> by nearly a fifth last month.

 

"AWFUL COMBINATION"

Asia's millions of smallholder farmers - many with less than an acre of land - are likely to take a bigger hit from the pest than larger growers given their reluctance to adopt new technologies to combat production threats.

 

"There is an inertia about new technologies," said Paul Voutier, Singapore-based director at Grow Asia, a World Bank funded organization that works with small farmers and other stakeholders to improve productivity.

 

"And the treatment for fall armyworm has the awful combination of being both costly and difficult," he said, noting the pest's tendency to burrow low into the stem of the crop made it hard to combat with traditional pesticide sprays.

 

Asia is the world's biggest consumer and importer of corn. The region accounts for 34% of global corn imports and nearly 36% of world corn consumption, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture data.

 

(Graphic: Corn area, production and consumption by region -

 

The pest, which has been known for almost 200 years in the Americas, was first reported in Africa in 2016 and has since spread across the entire continent, according to FAO.

 

In July 2018, fall armyworm - which can fly up to 100 km in one night - was spotted in the southern Indian state of Karnataka, and by the end of February 2019 it was reported in 10 of India's 29 states.

 

The armyworm has been detected in more than 50 of Thailand's 76 provinces, and is concentrated in six western provinces with large maize areas. It has a preference for corn, but can attack 80 crops, including rice and sugarcane.

 

(Graphic: Areas susceptible to fall armyworm -

 

The pest thrives in tropical and sub-tropical climates. Its life cycle is 24 days to 40 days, and so two or three generations of it can feed off a single crop during a growing season before moving on.

 

"Fall armyworm attacks the corn crop in all stages, right from the germination of seeds and early establishment of the crop, which is the most vulnerable stage, till the harvesting stage," said Prasanta Patra, who heads the corn and row crops market in Asia for global agrichemicals firm Corteva.

 

"As the fall armyworm larva prefers to stay in the central part of the young corn plant, a very specific application technique needs to be applied to ensure that the insect comes in contact with insecticide."

 

LOWER FEED DEMAND

China has seen corn and sugarcane crops damaged by the pest, according to a government official at one of the provinces hit by armyworm.

 

"It is very challenging. Corn farmers don't use much pesticide usually as corn is considered easier to grow and manage, compared with other crops," said a manager at a pest-trapping equipment producer that works with the Chinese government on fighting the armyworm.

 

The invasion of fall armyworm has hit China at a time the world's most populous nation is battling African swine fever which has resulted in culling of millions of pigs.

 

Demand for animal feed in China will therefore fall, and a drop in the production of corn may not immediately impact local prices, people in the industry said.

 

(Reporting by Patpicha Tanakasempipat and Naveen Thukral; writing by Naveen Thukral; additional reporting by Hallie Gu in BEIJING and Gavin Maguire in SINGAPORE)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2019-06-21

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[holy cow cm]

This does not look good at all for the corn and rice and perhaps sugar and soybean crops here. Could have devastation outcome and will flood the lands with more pesticides ever used.

[marko kok prong]

Not good,anything to do with global climate change i wonder?

[xylophone]

22 minutes ago, marko kok prong said:

Not good,anything to do with global climate change i wonder?

How can it be when a stable genius says there is no such thing!!

 

Not good for farmers when eradication is so difficult.........does it have any natural enemies?? 

[marko kok prong]

1 minute ago, xylophone said:

How can it be when a stable genius says there is no such thing!!

 

Not good for farmers when eradication is so difficult.........does it have any natural enemies?? 

sounds very difficult,as an ex Pest controller,if it burr0ws into the stem you would have to inject every single plant,even then hit and miss also like the comment about the stable genius,every time it snows he thinks the world is getting colder,unfortunately he cannot distinguish that weather is different to climate.

[Gecko123]

A couple of days ago, I noticed my next door neighbor applying a pesticide to his corn crop which is rarely ever necessary. I could tell it wasn't a herbicide because he was spraying it over the plants rather than on the ground. This was before I read the article about the fall armyworms.

 

I just went over to his house to ask him if he knew about the armyworm problem. I even showed him a picture of the caterpillar from the news article. I'm not sure if he had seen a picture before, but he told me that the chemical he was spraying on the corn was to kill caterpillars. He also said that it was probably going to take more than one application to kill them all.

 

His comment about the drought was 'if it doesn't rain in the next week or so, he's probably going to till his corn fields under.' So that's brutal: being forced to spray against insect damage to a crop you might have to till under if it doesn't rain soon. Today, temperatures hit 95 F and the corn looks more stressed than ever. Really feel sorry for the farmers in my area.

[Dumbastheycome]

I try to maintain a small home garden. Have noticed this caterpillar amongst the leaves of soft greens. Quite large. Have never noticed the moth that spreads the eggs. This could be a  very serious global threat to some food supplies and a disaster for farmers of same given it is difficult to control.

No  doubt the Chemical Saviours  will offer some wonder product in due course that will further hasten the death of  bees as well . The same experts whose products  has destroyed whatever used to naturally keep this armyworm under control !

 

[BkruaiRetiree]

HAVEN'T THEY HEARD ABOUT BACILLUS THURINGIENSIS  (BT)??? Been around for many years, only kills worms/caterpillars that eat the leaves upon which it's sprayed, doesn't poison ANYTHING!!!  It's cheap, too - check it out on Lazada.  I use it on my little garden, especially on my citrus plants.  With the fall armyworm, the crops need to be sprayed probably twice a week for best effect.  Don't these newspeople do any research before they publish these stories?  If they did, they could notify the Ag department, publish a BIG article for the farmers, or perhaps even be so bold as to print out an informational leaflet & distribute it nationwide.  Sheeesh!!!

[stanleycoin]

Don't see what the problem is.

The locals will only eat them as well.

meat and veg all in one.

 

 

[xtrnuno41]

IS this coincidence or what? Are there money making people setting up to make big profit?

Did they brought it to the countries to destroy? 

Are there companies working on destroying population? AH ok now you think im crazy?! 

At this time no one have to be surprised if it would be the case. This is the world we live in.

It always comes in waves, aids, h1n1, swine flu, ebola and now crops destroying caterpillars.

Is there a "Spectre" like organization? Are there more of them?

 

No one seems to know, how the plastics are getting in the oceans. We are talking about 8000000 TONS of plastic EACH year!

 

Medicines getting more and more expensive. Here we had a medicine raised from 30 cents /pill to 140 euro/pill !! 

Or AMericans complaining about insulin, going up in price again and again.

There was in 2015 a guy in USA, bought medicine Daraprim company and raised from $13.50/pill to $750 /pill.

People using it for cancer, aids 

ANother medicine by Swiss company for treating cancer, costed 16000 euro , now 90000 euro. Inventor of the medicine sold his company, then this was sold again to the Swiss company and they find the ways to raise (2017) the medicine extremely in price. They have right to be the only one to sell this in EU for 10 years and 7 years in USA.

 

It shows if you have money nowadays, you are "allowed" to live.

I would not be surprised if  "Spectre " like "companies" try to get better in money and now spreaded this caterpillar.

There maybe will be a genetic modified corn seed (resistant against the caterpillar), which they want to sell now and test big time.

ANd becoming rich of it. Of course speculating on money market will also do his work, as price will rise.

ANd i say to myself: What a wonderful world , o yeaaaaaaaaaaah

[natway09]

And they wonder why OZ & NZ have such strict quarantine laws.

I wonder what the Thai Ag Dept is doing about it ??????

[GreasyFingers]

They are probably not the same but we used to have army worms in our lawns in AUS, also referred to as dollar spot.. The best way to get rid of them was to spray the used water from the washing machine.

[Reigntax]

1 hour ago, xtrnuno41 said:

IS this coincidence or what? Are there money making people setting up to make big profit?

Did they brought it to the countries to destroy? 

Are there companies working on destroying population? AH ok now you think im crazy?! 

At this time no one have to be surprised if it would be the case. This is the world we live in.

It always comes in waves, aids, h1n1, swine flu, ebola and now crops destroying caterpillars.

Is there a "Spectre" like organization? Are there more of them?

 

No one seems to know, how the plastics are getting in the oceans. We are talking about 8000000 TONS of plastic EACH year!

 

Medicines getting more and more expensive. Here we had a medicine raised from 30 cents /pill to 140 euro/pill !! 

Or AMericans complaining about insulin, going up in price again and again.

There was in 2015 a guy in USA, bought medicine Daraprim company and raised from $13.50/pill to $750 /pill.

People using it for cancer, aids 

ANother medicine by Swiss company for treating cancer, costed 16000 euro , now 90000 euro. Inventor of the medicine sold his company, then this was sold again to the Swiss company and they find the ways to raise (2017) the medicine extremely in price. They have right to be the only one to sell this in EU for 10 years and 7 years in USA.

 

It shows if you have money nowadays, you are "allowed" to live.

I would not be surprised if  "Spectre " like "companies" try to get better in money and now spreaded this caterpillar.

There maybe will be a genetic modified corn seed (resistant against the caterpillar), which they want to sell now and test big time.

ANd becoming rich of it. Of course speculating on money market will also do his work, as price will rise.

ANd i say to myself: What a wonderful world , o yeaaaaaaaaaaah

You having a stressful day?

[attrayant]

1 hour ago, BkruaiRetiree said:

HAVEN'T THEY HEARD ABOUT BACILLUS THURINGIENSIS  (BT)??? 

 

 

It's a good first step.  Bt is even permitted in so-called "organic" farming since it's a natural soil bacterium.  However, manual applications don't get the entire crop - maybe 60-70% if you're lucky.  The best solution is to use Bt corn, which has the genes built-in to express the Bt's endotoxin automagically.

[DrTuner]

1 hour ago, xtrnuno41 said:

IS this coincidence or what?

No, it's yet another side effect of overpopulation and globalization. 

 

https://populationmatters.org/the-issue

[attrayant]

38 minutes ago, DrTuner said:

No, it's yet another side effect of overpopulation and globalization. 

 

 

Oh no, we better stop globalization because of all the... fall armyworms.

[DrTuner]

10 minutes ago, attrayant said:

Oh no, we better stop globalization because of all the... fall armyworms.

No worries, it'll stop automatically when we die of famine after the worms have eaten it all.

[Samuel Smith]

2 hours ago, natway09 said:

And they wonder why OZ & NZ have such strict quarantine laws.

I wonder what the Thai Ag Dept is doing about it ??????

Easier for islands

[digger70]

6 hours ago, marko kok prong said:

sounds very difficult,as an ex Pest controller,if it burr0ws into the stem you would have to inject every single plant,even then hit and miss also like the comment about the stable genius,every time it snows he thinks the world is getting colder,unfortunately he cannot distinguish that weather is different to climate.

It doesn't burrow in to the stem, that's a different worm. If they check their crop all the time one can spray, army worm no problem, the problem is they wait to long and than the damage is done

[IAMHERE]

The worm has travelled from India thru SEA and into China since July of 2018? I'm thinking I could hardly walk that distance in less than a year. I'll bet some seed company sells a corn seed that the worm leaves alone.

[kickstart]

5 hours ago, BkruaiRetiree said:

HAVEN'T THEY HEARD ABOUT BACILLUS THURINGIENSIS  (BT)??? Been around for many years, only kills worms/caterpillars that eat the leaves upon which it's sprayed, doesn't poison ANYTHING!!!  It's cheap, too - check it out on Lazada.  I use it on my little garden, especially on my citrus plants.  With the fall armyworm, the crops need to be sprayed probably twice a week for best effect.  Don't these newspeople do any research before they publish these stories?  If they did, they could notify the Ag department, publish a BIG article for the farmers, or perhaps even be so bold as to print out an informational leaflet & distribute it nationwide.  Sheeesh!!!

I take it you do not farm ,to spray twice a week ,a farmer using a contractor will charge 120 /rie just  to spray a 10 rie field that is 2400 baht a week,for how long  ? that is his profit margin gone,what if it rains, that would render the spray ineffective.

If corn prices are low  like last year not much money to make ,and where I am it is almost a drought,another bad year for corn farmers ,and they do not receive government help like the rice farmers .

   

[ocddave]

3 hours ago, DrTuner said:

No worries, it'll stop automatically when we die of famine after the worms have eaten it all.

Yep, still waiting on the magic solution from mother nature that takes care of overpopulation, we are way overdue for a correction. Something is bound to wipe out multi-millions of us at some point, that is if we don't hit another World War before that happens.

[Dumbastheycome]

Wow! The worm has turned a way unforeseen! Tis a worm of converse and controversy!

A distraction from the orange viral worm?

Which army of worm will end us all first?????

[nev]

7 hours ago, BkruaiRetiree said:

HAVEN'T THEY HEARD ABOUT BACILLUS THURINGIENSIS  (BT)??? Been around for many years, only kills worms/caterpillars that eat the leaves upon which it's sprayed, doesn't poison ANYTHING!!!  It's cheap, too - check it out on Lazada.  I use it on my little garden, especially on my citrus plants.  With the fall armyworm, the crops need to be sprayed probably twice a week for best effect.  Don't these newspeople do any research before they publish these stories?  If they did, they could notify the Ag department, publish a BIG article for the farmers, or perhaps even be so bold as to print out an informational leaflet & distribute it nationwide.  Sheeesh!!!

Would this work on cockroaches, I have a lot in my mushroom sheds eating the mushrooms, Or any suggestions what to use?

[Justgrazing]

13 hours ago, webfact said:

"Once the fall armyworm has arrived, it can't be eradicated, and farmers will have to manage it," Fredrix said.

Blimey sounds a bit like the current admin' .. 

 

13 hours ago, webfact said:

In July 2018, fall armyworm - which can fly up to 100 km in one night

Before launching a full airborne assault on enemy cornfields .. 

 

[aqua4]

6 hours ago, attrayant said:

  The best solution is to use Bt corn, which has the genes built-in to express the Bt's endotoxin automagically.

I dont think that they allow GMO in Thailand. 

 

5 hours ago, DrTuner said:

No, it's yet another side effect of overpopulation and globalization. 

https://populationmatters.org/the-issue

Yes. With global travel as well as the movement of goods especially agricultural products its making a dangerous mess. All it takes is one slip up by customs and there is a problem. 

[masuk]

14 hours ago, BkruaiRetiree said:

HAVEN'T THEY HEARD ABOUT BACILLUS THURINGIENSIS  (BT)??? Been around for many years, only kills worms/caterpillars that eat the leaves upon which it's sprayed, doesn't poison ANYTHING!!!  It's cheap, too - check it out on Lazada.  I use it on my little garden, especially on my citrus plants.  With the fall armyworm, the crops need to be sprayed probably twice a week for best effect.  Don't these newspeople do any research before they publish these stories?  If they did, they could notify the Ag department, publish a BIG article for the farmers, or perhaps even be so bold as to print out an informational leaflet & distribute it nationwide.  Sheeesh!!!

Excellent idea.  I used this on my pear and apple trees for years to good effect.  Different moth, but same result.

The Thai Dept of Agriculture or its equivalent should be doing this work of educating farmers, not relying on journalists.

[mikebell]

I read the headline and thought it was another article about Prayuth and Prawit.

[masuk]

7 hours ago, aqua4 said:

I dont think that they allow GMO in Thailand. 

 

Yes. With global travel as well as the movement of goods especially agricultural products its making a dangerous mess. All it takes is one slip up by customs and there is a problem. 

Maybe Quarantine or do Customs do both in Thailand?

[neeray]

36 minutes ago, mikebell said:

I read the headline and thought it was another article about Prayuth and Prawit.

You beat me to it by just a few minutes "mikebell".

 

This is actually the second wave of "army worm". The first one started in 2014. The second wave in March of 2019. But hopefully, the second wave will be "history" within a year or two.