How to control fall armyworm? Eradication methods and pesticide use explained
Fall armyworm larvae are being spotted across Taiwan, China one after another, and county and city governments where suspected or confirmed cases have been reported are on high alert. As of 11:00 on the 16th, the number of confirmed cases of fall armyworm in larval form had reached 65 nationwide, with 1 new case in Qingshui District, Taichung on the 16th. A total of 28 cases have currently been destroyed. On the 15th, in many places including Lucao Township in Chiayi, Checheng Township in Pingtung, Magong Township in Penghu, Shuilin Township in Yunlin, and Zhubei City in Hsinchu County, the standard operating procedures of the Bureau of Animal and Plant Health Inspection and Quarantine were followed to assess the environment and climate, carry out plant uprooting, burying, burning, and application of organic fertilizer, and hang pheromone traps nearby, with monitoring to continue for 3 months. Farming may resume only after it is confirmed that there are no cases. After larvae were found in Matsu and Penghu, 4 and 2 adult fall armyworms were also trapped in each place respectively; no confirmed adult cases have been reported on the main island.
Regarding the sex pheromone traps developed and promoted by research institutions online, the Bureau of Animal and Plant Health Inspection and Quarantine stated that at this stage farmers are not encouraged to use them on their own, because no control technology capable of mass trapping and killing has yet been developed. It hopes that research institutions will provide their research and development results to the Bureau for use in the next stage of control strategy. At present, this is still the golden period for controlling first-generation larvae. The Bureau has set up more than 500 surveillance points nationwide and will continue to observe whether there is adult activity.
On the 15th, a member of the public in Checheng Township reported that in a 1-hectare corn field, suspected fall armyworm droppings and insect bodies were found. After preliminary confirmation from photos by Kaohsiung District Agricultural Research and Extension Station personnel, staff from the Kaohsiung station immediately joined county government personnel and the local farmers' association at the site that day for re-identification. After confirming it was fall armyworm larvae, the county government quickly dispatched an excavator, dug a pit more than 3 m deep, backfilled it with soil, then spread organic fertilizer and watered it.
In Chiayi County, in addition to the case reported in Lucao Township on the 12th, news emerged on the 12th and 14th of 2 more fall armyworm infestations in edible corn fields in Liujiao Township and Dongshi Township, with destruction areas of 0.1248 hectares and 0.1 hectares respectively. The Aogu area of Dongshi Township falls within a wetland range, and in addition to the high groundwater level, the discovered field area was a corn field using organic farming methods, so after uprooting the plants, the county government used on-site burning and plowing, and did not apply chemical pesticides.
In Hualien County, where organic agriculture accounts for nearly 40 percent of the national total, 3 of the 4 cases reported on the 14th were found in organic fields. Hualien County Magistrate Xu Zhenwei recently said that considering that the production cost of organic crop cultivation is higher than that of conventional farming methods, she was worried that crop compensation payments would create a burden on county government expenditures, so she hoped the central government could raise the proportion of subsidy for crop compensation funding from the current 50 percent to 80 percent.
To compensate farmers for the loss of destroying crops on farmland and being unable to cultivate in the short term, the Council of Agriculture introduced 2 types of compensation: compensation for destroyed crops priced by local governments, and the cost of leaving fields fallow for 3 months. The fallow compensation is covered by the Council of Agriculture at 45,000 yuan per hectare. As for crop destruction compensation, Article 12 of the Plant Protection and Quarantine Act states that a evaluation committee organized by the competent authority of a special municipality or county (city) shall set the compensation price, mainly borne by the local government, but the central competent authority may provide subsidies, and the subsidy measures shall be set by the central competent authority. At present, the Bureau of Animal and Plant Health Inspection and Quarantine has only announced a reference benchmark for estimating compensation based on the average gross income of crops over 3 years for reference by local pricing committees, including 19,000 yuan per fen for edible corn, 13,000 yuan for feed corn, and 6,280 yuan for green chop corn, with no compensation differences based on farming method.
Hualien County carries out farmland burial operations. (Photo courtesy of Hualien County Government)
Chiayi County carries out burning operations. (Photo courtesy of Chiayi County Government)
