In March 2021, the Institute of Plant Protection of Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (IPPCAAS) co-organized webinar series on fall armyworm (FAW) Integrated Pest Management (IPM), together with Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Secretariat, Global Action for FAW Control, FAO Subregional Office for Southern Africa, and FAO Office in Malawi. The purpose of holding the webinar series is to meet the needs in global control of the transboundary pest FAW through international collaboration, which is also important for implementation of the scientific and technological cooperation MoU signed between CAAS and FAO. Dr. Xia Jingyuan, Director of the Plant Production and Protection Division (NSP) and Executive Secretary of FAW Secretariat Global Action, attended the first webinar on March 3rd. He made an introduction on the FAO Global Action for FAW control. Professor Zhou Xueping, Director General of IPPCAAS, attended the second webinar on March 24th. Chinese scientists have accumulated a lot of experiences in FAW mornitoring, forecasting and control technologies. DG Zhou pointed out that it is as important to participate in global action and contribute to worldwide FAW control as to do in China.

On March 3rd, the first webinar on FAW IPM was held through Zoom, and Dr. Yang Puyun, Agricultural officer, FAO Research and Extension Unit (OINR) hosted the webinar. The main topic of the webinar was to share experiences on FAW monitoring and forecasting in Southern African countries and China. Dr. Selvaraju Ramasamy, Head of the FAO OINR, and Dr. Chen Zhijun, Representative of FAO Office in Malawi, delivered opening remarks. Experts from China, Malawi and FAO were invited to make presentations on FAW mornitoring and forecasting. Professor Wang Zhenying and Dr. Yang Xianming from IPPCAAS delivered lectures on “Invasion & current status of the occurrences of FAW in China” and “Monitoring and forecasting FAW population by light trap along with the dissecting female ovarian development gradation technique”, respectively.

On March 24, Professor Wang Zhenying hosted the second webinar on FAW IPM. Experts from China and FAO were invited to give presentations on different aspects of FAW control technologies. Professor Zhang Jie and Professor Yuan Huizhu delivered lectures on “Development and application of Bacillus thuringiensis and fungal biopesticides to control Spodoptera frugiperda in China” and “Using drones for applying granular formulations of bio-pesticides and high effective chemical pesticides”, respectively.

More than 50 experts from the national plant protection departments in 12 Southern African countries including Malawi, South Africa, Zimbabwe, etc., FAO, IPPCAAS, Zhejiang University, South China Agricultural University, the Aerospace Information Research Institute of Chinese Academy of Sciences, and Shenzhen Bioglobal Agriculture Science Co. Ltd., attended the webinar series.

FAW is a major transboundary agricultural insect pest that has become the most significant threat to food security and agricultural sustainability worldwide. In response to this global threat and scale-up international needs to stop and sustainably control negative impacts of FAW worldwide, FAO launched a three-year Global Action for FAW Control in 2019. Professor Wang Zhenying from IPPCAAS was elected the Technical Committee of this Global Action. Since he joined the committee, Professor Wang has attended many meetings or webinars organized by FAO or ASEAN. From these meetings, Professor Wang learned the FAW occurrence worldwide and discussed strategies for FAW control. The webinar series held recently has strengthened the exchanges and cooperation between China, FAO and southern African countries, enhanced the international academic ranks of China in FAW research, and promoted the transfer of green control technologies on crop pests from China to African countries.

By Tian Fang (tianfang@caas.cn)