Davao City—The Agriculture Office of Mati City has alerted farmers in 11 villages to take precautionary measures to stop the infestation of fall armyworm on corn.
CAO said seven of the FAW-affected villages have been severely impacted based on corn samples.
These are Danao, Libudon, Dawan, Bobon, Don Enrique Lopez, Sainz, and Badas.
Romel Avance, CAO agricultural technician, said FAW monitoring started in December last year as soon as the infestation was detected.
Avance said an information campaign was immediately conducted on the affected farmers to better equip them in combating the infestation.
“Among the interventions by the City Agriculture are biological and synthetic pesticide, light trapping to minimize the adult FAW to lay eggs, and to continue the information dissemination to barangay extension technician,” he added.
Fall armyworm is an insect native to tropical and subtropical regions of the Americas. In the absence of natural control or good management, FAW can cause significant damage to crops.
It prefers corn, but can feed on more than 80 additional species of crops, including rice, sorghum, millet, sugarcane, vegetable crops and cotton.
The first incidence of suspected FAW in the Philippines was reported on June 20 last year in Piat, Cagayan province.
