UN agency reveals crops disease affecting 1.5 million Nigerian households
The Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations, FAO, on Wednesday released its situation report for November 2018, disclosing that an estimated one million and five hundred thousand (1.5 million) households are to be affected by the Fall Army Worm, FAW across some states in the country.
The report, which was made available to DAILY POST by Patrina Pink, FAO Maiduguri sub-office, revealed that the Food and Agriculture Organization, FAO, still needed USD 3 million to combat the FAW crisis across Nigeria.
FAW (Spodoptera frugiperda) is a significant insect pest, native to the tropical and sub-tropical regions of the Americas. It is a highly destructive plant-eating insect with a wide host range, attacking more than 80 plant species and causing massive economic loss.
According to the organisation, “FAW prefers crops in the grass family, to which maize and rice belong. The pest was first observed in Nigeria in 2016 and, since then, has continued to ravage maize fields at an alarming rate.
“In Nigeria, maize is not only a major staple food crop at the national level and relevant to the food security and nutrition of nearly 200 million people, but also a key input for industry.
“As a result, attacks by the FAW have major implications for the food availability and industrial output in the country. The alarming rate of expansion and its presence in all parts of the country has made the Fall Armyworm a major concern for agriculture sector stakeholders.”
The sector, according to the report, is a key source of income for millions of Nigerians and in some parts of the country, more than 80 per cent of households engage in an agriculture-based livelihood.
“Agriculture is also essential to national food security and nutrition, foreign exchange earnings, employment and revenue. In a rapid response to forestall the menace of the FAW pest on Nigeria’s national food security and livelihoods, FAO developed a Fall Armyworm project focusing on capacity building and integrated pest management.
“The Fall Armyworm (FAW) is negatively affecting the food production and incomes of more than a million producer households across Nigeria, resulting in more than USD 268 million worth of losses in earnings in Abia, Ekiti, Ondo and Oyo states alone. In July 2018, FAO mapped the impact of the FAW on livelihoods in six states in southern Nigeria, with the mapping of an additional six states in the northern region ongoing. However, significant questions about the impact of the FAW in the other 24 unmapped states of Nigeria remain.
“FAO’s funding for FAW activities has been depleted – the Organization is currently the sole financial source for its response in Nigeria. Though committed to saving the livelihoods of farmers and other agriculture sector stakeholders affected by FAW, FAO faces significant financial constraints to carry out monitoring, prevention and response activities,” the report added.
