The United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) invited regional experts to assess and assist Egyptian biopesticide laboratories in combating fall armyworm (FAW), the organization said in a statement on Thursday.
Invited by FAO, experts from the International Center of Insect Physiology and Ecology (ICIPE ), based in Kenya’s capital Nairobi, recently visited the laboratories of Plant Protection Research Institute of Egypt’s Agriculture Research Center in the provinces of Giza and Suhag.
“This visit is performed within the strategic plan developed by FAO to assist countries affected by FAW, which aims to strengthen the national capacitates in terms of pest monitoring,” said the FAO statement.
FAO experts also accompanied the ICIPE experts during their visit to the biological control and biopesticide laboratories in Giza and Suhag to assess their capabilities and identify their needs.
FAO has been providing emergency support to the Egyptian government since the pest was officially reported in southern Egypt in May 2019, according to the statement.
The emergency support included four training workshops on pest control and the establishment of a monitoring and early warning system using pheromone tarps.
“FAO has also launched a new emergency project in February 2020 that aims to train more specialists and raise awareness to help farmers understand the risk of FAW and take efficient actions to reduce potential damage,” FAO said.
