A fall armyworm infestation (FAW) is wreaking havoc in Western Visayas, causing damage on corn crops in the region estimated at P57 million, based on initial data provided by the Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Operations Center.
An attached agency of the Department of Agriculture (DA), the operations center said more than 3,000 hectares of cornland tended by over 5,000 farmers have been destroyed in the province of Aklan, Capiz, Antique, Iloilo and Negros Occidental who collectively lost 734 metric tons of the crop thus far.
According to the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization, the FAW, in the absence of natural controls, prefers corn but can feed on more than 80 other crops, including rice, sorghum, millet, sugarcane, vegetable crops and cotton.
The DA claimed taking steps to control its spread, including joint monitoring and evaluation activities of field offices in Cagayan Valley, Central Luzon, Bicol, Western Visayas, Eastern Visayas, Zamboanga Peninsula, Northern Mindanao, Soccsksargen, Caraga, Calabarzon and Mimaropa together with local government units.
The DA is also developing incidence maps, providing biocontrol agents and insecticides to farmers for immediate pest control and maintaining a buffer stock of recommended insecticides.
Farmers have also been made aware of synchronous planting and the thorough land preparation to destroy pupae and plowing under stubbles after harvest to disrupt pest life cycles, implement mass trapping using sex pheromones to monitor and reduce adult FAW populations, release of earwigs and trichogramma chilonis, application and follow-up spraying of pesticides and entomopathogenic fungi in case of heightened infestation, as well as training sessions on pest management strategies.
The DA said 87 percent of infested areas or 2,820 hectares planted to corn have a high chance of recovery and that less than 13 percent have no chance at recovery at all.
