NAIROBI, July 10 (Xinhua) -- Kenya has lost 250,000 hectares of crops to Fall Armyworms (FAW) invasion since it was reported in the country last year, a government official said on Tuesday.
Hamadi Boga, the Principal Secretary for Agricultural Research in the Ministry of Agriculture, noted that the migratory pest has caused lots of damage to farmers who are likely to realize poor harvest this season.
"We have put measures in place including appointing a team that is continuously monitoring the pest along the borders and other ports of entry," Boga said during the launch of a nationwide FAW awareness campaign through telephony targeting 10 million farmers.
He blamed global transnational travels for the spread of the pest into the continent adding that measures must be put in place to reduce its spread.
Deborah Duveskog, the UN Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) Agricultural Officer at the Sub Regional Office cautioned regional governments against the use of pesticide in the management of FAW.
Duveskog noted that several biological measures exist in the region and that pesticides should be used as a last resort.
She however told farmers to make good use of mobile phones and internet in managing the pest since lots of information regarding the pest exists.
FAO called for a massive scaling up of the FAW campaign to train more than 500,000 farmers to manage the pest through Farmer Field Schools in sub-Saharan Africa since the pest could spread to northern Africa.
The UN agency noted that the pest could leave 300 million people hungry in sub-Saharan Africa, having already infested maize and sorghum fields across 44 countries.