Amidst fears of imminent food shortage, the menace of fall armyworm pests ravaging farms across Nigeria may lead to loss of crops worth $4 billion. However, to avert this, farmers under the aegis of All Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN) are calling for drastic measures from the Federal Government to stop the spread of the pest. The global food agency, the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) had earlier forecast that the fall armyworm -the larvae of a type of moth – would cause more than $13 billion in crop losses in Africa this year. But the President of AFAN, Chief Femi Coker, has warned that Nigeria alone may record almost half of the projected losses in the continent. “If government fails to approach the issue at hand properly, it could cause our economy $4 billion in crop losses out of the $13 billion predicted for sub-Saharan Africa this year,” he said. According to Coker, many farmers are already recording losses in their business as the pest continues to destroy their crops. He added that the pest is threatening the livelihood of millions of Nigerian farmers as it spread across farmlands in the country. The AFAN president advised government and the agriculture ministry to take the fall armyworm pest issue seriously in order to safeguard food sufficiency and security in the country. Particularly, he explained that the moths are comfortable with hot climates and can travel hundreds of miles per day when carried by wind. Their presence on crop, he said, drains the crop of nutrients until it dries up. Besides, he noted that agric entrepreneur said that the sudden invasion of pests and diseases on crops in many farms across the country was casting doubt on availability of foods in the market because the moth was brewing acute shortage in food production and severe reduction in farmers’ outputs. He stated that the ravaging fall armyworm had forced many farmers to abandon their farming businesses in search of other work to feed their families. “The fall armyworm is a cause for concern to us here in Nigeria. It is targeting maize, a vital staple crop for many families in Nigeria and we are calling on government and its partners to mobilise their solutions to work assiduously to control fall armyworms in our farmlands,” Coker said.Meanwhile, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has said that it is offering prize money for ways to combat the fall armyworm. The Coordinator of the Fall Armyworm Task Force at the USAID Bureau of Food Security, Regina Eddy, said the agency is offering a prize of $150,000 for the most viable solution, two awards of $75,000 to the “most promising” solutions and two awards of $50,000 to an “early stage” solution that shows the most potential. “USAID is looking for the best ideas, best digital tools to combat the pest and disseminate information and technology to help farmers manage it,” Eddy said. Source - https://newtelegraphonline.com