Thumbnail Image

FAO Global Symposium on Sustainable Fall Armyworm Management

Charting a global response to future invasive pests













FAO. 2024. FAO Global Symposium on Sustainable Fall Armyworm Management – Charting a global response to future invasive pests. Rome.




Also available in:
No results found.

Related items

Showing items related by metadata.

  • Thumbnail Image
    Brochure, flyer, fact-sheet
    Brochure
    Burkina Faso: Impact of fall armyworm on maize production, livelihoods and food security
    DIEM-Impact report, July 2023: Executive summary
    2023
    Also available in:

    This document is the Executive summary provided in the July 2023 DIEM-Impact report entitled Burkina Faso: Impact of fall armyworm on maize production, livelihoods and food security. Since its appearance in 2016, fall armyworm has spread to many countries and remains one of the main threats to agriculture and food security in Africa. Among the countries affected by fall armyworm in West Africa and the Sahel, Burkina Faso was selected for this assessment based on the data of the Cadre Harmonisé analysis that indicated twelve percent of the population were in Phase 3+ over the second half of 2022, the highest in West Africa. The objective of this study was to assess the impact of fall armyworm on maize production, and the livelihoods and food security of maize farmers in Burkina Faso. FAO established DIEM-Impact to provide a granular and rapid understanding of the impact of large-scale hazards on agriculture and agricultural livelihoods using a variety of assessment methodologies, including primary and secondary information, remote sensing technologies, and FAO’s damage and loss methodology. DIEM-Impact presents a regularly updated and accessible state of food insecurity in fragile environments and helps underpin FAO's programming based on evidence.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Booklet
    Corporate general interest
    Burkina Faso: Impact of fall armyworm on maize production, livelihoods and food security
    DIEM-Impact report, July 2023
    2023
    Also available in:
    No results found.

    Since its appearance in 2016, fall armyworm has spread to many countries and remains one of the main threats to agriculture and food security in Africa. Among the countries affected by fall armyworm in West Africa and the Sahel, Burkina Faso was selected for this assessment based on the production level of maize, level of fall armyworm infestation and associated recorded or estimated crop losses, presence of other shocks and level of food insecurity. In addition, the Cadre Harmonisé analysis indicated that 12 percent of the population was in Phase 3+ over the second half of 2022, the highest in West Africa. This impact assessment follows a methodology developed by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations' (FAO's) Data in Emergencies Information System (DIEM), articulated in three steps: a household survey, a scouting exercise to measure the level of fall armyworm infestation, and a crop cutting experiment conducted at harvest time to determine the yields. The objective was to assess the impact of fall armyworm on maize production, and the livelihoods and food security of maize farmers in Burkina Faso. FAO established DIEM-Impact to provide a granular and rapid understanding of the impact of large-scale hazards on agriculture and agricultural livelihoods using a variety of assessment methodologies, including primary and secondary information, remote sensing technologies, and FAO’s damage and loss methodology. DIEM-Impact presents a regularly updated and accessible assessment of the state of food insecurity in fragile environments and helps underpin FAO's programming based on evidence.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Book (stand-alone)
    Guideline
    Technical guidance on fall armyworm
    Coordinated surveillance and an early warning system for the sustainable management of transboundary pests, with special reference to fall armyworm (Spodoptera frugiperda [J.E. Smith]) in South and Southeast Asia
    2022
    Also available in:
    No results found.

    Worldwide, maize is the third most important cereal after rice and wheat. It occupies 197 million hectares of planted area. Asia contributes to nearly 30 percent of global maize supplies, and area and production of the crop is rapidly increasing in the continent. Minimum support prices, swelling market demand from the animal feed and processing industries, as well as human consumption, have all led to increased maize production in zones where precipitation limits rice cultivation. However, maize production is currently threatened by the arrival in Asia (in 2018) of the fall armyworm (FAW), Spodoptera frugiperda (J. E. Smith) – a native to North America. It invaded India in 2018 and since then it has marched to most of the Asian countries. In 2019, its presence was confirmed in 13 Asian countries including Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, the Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, the Philippines, the Republic of Korea, Sri Lanka, and Viet Nam. In 2020, it was confirmed in Australia, Timor-Leste and Papua New Guinea. In August 2021, it reached the Solomon Islands, posing a serious threat to other Pacific islands. FAW is a fast-dispersing, migratory, transboundary insect pest. While high FAW incidences have been reported on several crops in Asia, the most important economic damage caused is to maize (followed by sorghum). The FAW invasion threatens the food security of millions of family farms in Asia, with smallholder farmers being especially vulnerable. The negative economic impact of FAW is not only evident in yield loss: the pest also leads to a significant increase in insecticide applications, with associated health, environmental and cost issues. At the same time, resilience to FAW on the continent is currently weakened by the limited access to necessary tools, technologies and sustainable integrated pest management (IPM) practices for FAW. Thus, there is an urgent need to implement an effective approach to FAW management in Asia.

Users also downloaded

Showing related downloaded files

  • Thumbnail Image
    Brochure, flyer, fact-sheet
    Brochure
    The 10 elements of agroecology
    Guiding the transition to sustainable food and agricultural systems
    2018
    Today’s food and agricultural systems have succeeded in supplying large volumes of food to global markets. However, high-external input, resource-intensive agricultural systems have caused massive deforestation, water scarcities, biodiversity loss, soil depletion and high levels of greenhouse gas emissions. Despite significant progress in recent times, hunger and extreme poverty persist as critical global challenges. Even where poverty has been reduced, pervasive inequalities remain, hindering poverty eradication. Integral to FAO’s Common Vision for Sustainable Food and Agriculture, agroecology is a key part of the global response to this climate of instability, offering a unique approach to meeting significant increases in our food needs of the future while ensuring no one is left behind. Agroecology is an integrated approach that simultaneously applies ecological and social concepts and principles to the design and management of food and agricultural systems. It seeks to optimize the interactions between plants, animals, humans and the environment while taking into consideration the social aspects that need to be addressed for a sustainable and fair food system. Agroecology is not a new invention. It can be identified in scientific literature since the 1920s, and has found expression in family farmers’ practices, in grassroots social movements for sustainability and the public policies of various countries around the world. More recently, agroecology has entered the discourse of international and UN institutions.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Book (stand-alone)
    Corporate general interest
    Ultra-processed foods, diet quality and human health 2019
    Also available in:
    No results found.

    The significance of industrial processing for the nature of food and the state of human health - and in particular the techniques and ingredients developed by modern food science and technology - is generally underestimated. This is evident in both national and international policies and strategies designed to improve populations' nutrition and health. Until recently it has also been neglected in epidemiological and experimental studies concerning diet, nutrition and health. This report seeks to assess the impact of ultra-processed food on diet quality and health, based on NOVA, a food classification system developed by researchers at the University of Sao Paulo, Brazil.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Book (stand-alone)
    Technical report
    CFS 2019/46/Inf.17 - Agroecological and other innovative approaches for sustainable agriculture and food systems that enhance food security and nutrition. A report by the High Level Panel of Experts on Food Security and Nutrition
    jul/19
    2019
    Also available in:

    Food systems and agriculture are at a crossroads and a profound transformation is needed at all scales, not only to achieve Sustainable Development Goal 2 (SDG2) to “end hunger and all forms of malnutrition” by 2030 but also to address Agenda 2030 in its entirety, including human and environmental health, climate change, equity and social stability. Current trends, such as the new increase, since 2014, in the number of undernourished people and the alarming rate of all forms of malnutrition in all countries, and related tensions will be exacerbated if we fail to design and implement, in a very near future, food systems that ensure food security and nutrition while addressing all sustainability challenges. Agroecological and other innovative approaches in agriculture are increasingly praised for their potential contribution to reach these crucial goals. This report adopts a dynamic perspective, centred on the key concepts of transition and transformation. Ultimately, this rich and comprehensive report aims to fuel an exciting policy convergence process and help remove the lock-ins by developing a common understanding of these matters, so that concrete transition pathways can be implemented at all relevant scales, from farm, community and landscape to national, regional and global levels.