Fall armyworm invades crops across Asia, smallholders worst hit by patpichatan naveenthukral
BAN NONG TOR, Thailand/SINGAPORE - 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.
“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.” 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.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.
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.
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