ORMOC City, Leyte - Fall Armyworm (FAW) is an insect pest native to tropical and subtropical regions of Americas. It is a highly destructive and invasive pest; capable of feeding on more than 100 plant species with maize and sorghum being the most preferred hosts. If left unmanaged, FAW can cause significant yield loss in maize and other crops.
The Agricultural Training Institute Regional Training Center 8 conducted a training on Fall Armyworm (FAW) Management that aimed to enhance the knowledge and skills of its participants on the incident and management protocols of FAW.
The resource persons of the said activity were technical experts from the Regional Crop Protection Center, Tacloban City and LGU-Ormoc City. They discussed about the climate crop calendar, FAW history and status of incidence, management protocols, biology, ecology, and damage symptoms, prevention and avoidance, suppression, and surveillance.
A field surveillance at A&A Corn Farm in Merida, Leyte was also conducted. Participants collected data for FAW monitoring such as the presence of egg mass, larvae, pupa, and moth. They also experienced installing pheromone traps and releasing of trichogramma in the corn field.
Participants commended the said activity and looked forward to conducting their own re-echo seminar on such topics. “Thank you ATI for the empowerment of the AEWs for without your trainings, we could not deliver new technologies to the farmers, since AEWs are the front liners in the field of agriculture “ said Jona Amaranto, an Agricultural Technician from Bobon, Northern Samar. “I hope that there will be more training to come. We are also grateful for our resource persons for sharing their knowledge and for being so approachable.” she added.
The training on Fall Armyworm (FAW) Management was conducted on June 7-9, 2022 at Pongos Hotel, Ormoc City, Leyte with twenty (20) participants from the different municipalities in the region.
