Fall Armyworm wreaks havoc across Telangana and Andhra Pradesh

HYDERABAD: Fall Armyworm (FAW), an invasive crop-eating pest, has affected thousands of hectares of maize crop across Telangana and Andhra Pradesh during the Kharif and Rabi seasons. It has also hit crops in Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Odisha, Gujarat, Chhattisgarh and West Bengal. This American pest had wreaked havoc in African countries, leading to food shortage and drop in production.Officials are citing the pest as the reason behind food shortage in Rayalaseema.
“FAW is a native of North America and can feed on 80 plant species. Presently, it is seen on maize and there are sporadic instances of it affecting paddy and grasses. When maize is unavailable, it affects other crops. It was first spotted in Karnataka in July 2018 Kharif season and now has affected maize crop in seven states, including Telangana. It is damaging the maize crop that is just 15 to 20 days,” Dr R Sudhakar Reddy, a scientist at Professor Jayashankar Telangana State Agricultural University, told TOI.

The pest has a high production rate of 1,000 eggs per female. Scientists say that the adult moths can travel long distances, which makes them a high-performing migrant. It was detected in Africa in 2016.
Dr Cherukuri Srinivasa Rao, director (Plant Health Management), National Institute of Plant Health Management, told TOI, “FAW has a short development cycle and the pest spreads fast. In 15 days it grows into a big larva. It lives inside the corn, so it does not get exposed to pesticides. Fall Armyworm hit India for the first time this year. Advisories were issued by the state agricultural universities as well as directorate of plant protection, quarantine and storage.
Union Ministry of Agriculture recently informed the Lok Sabha that during Kharif, around 81,000 hectares of maize crop was damaged in Karnataka, followed by 1,740 hectares in Telangana, 1,431 hectares in AP and 315 hectares in Tamil Nadu. However, officials said that the extent of damage during Rabi was high in the two Telugu-speaking States.
In Rabi, the pest was also noticed on sorghum and sugarcane crop. In AP, SV Agricultural College of Acharya NG Ranga Agricultural University issued a pest alert after scholars at the Department of Entomology observed that the pest had damaged sweet corn crop at the dry land arm of the college as well as the maize crop at Pathasanambatla village of Chandragiri mandal in Chittoor district of Andhra Pradesh.
“The frequency of crop damage in the field was observed to be around 40 to 50 per cent. Considering its demand in other countries, we request all extension workers and agriculture department officials to keep an eye on the pest,” the university said in the alert issued.