Establishment of a Community-Based Fall Armyworm Monitoring System in Somalia - TCP/SOM/3604

Abstract

In early 2016, a severe outbreak of the fall armyworm(FAW) was reported in southern and eastern Africa. Giventhe tendency of FAW to migrate long distances, it wasonly a matter of time before the populations from eitherKenya or Ethiopia reached Somalia. For the effective andtimely management of FAW, farmers needed to be madeaware of the destructive nature of this new pest. A provenstrategy for managing migratory and invasive pests isthrough direct engagement with the affected communities, providing the knowledge and tools requiredto intervene when such pests occur. Such a strategy wouldenable farmers to prevent the crop damage likely to becaused by FAW outbreaks. The control of FAW would be amajor challenge to farmers in Somalia, as it was not only anew pest but was also known to have developed resistance to readily available pesticides. The overallobjective of the project was thus to put in place acommunity-based FAW monitoring, forecasting and earlywarning system (EWS).