Nghe An: Fall armyworm destroys thousands of hectares of corn
(Baonghean.vn) - According to statistics from the Department of Crop Production and Plant Protection, the whole province currently has nearly 1,200 hectares of summer-autumn and autumn-winter corn severely damaged by fall armyworms. However, these are only the areas that were counted when the damage caused by the worms reached the "threshold", the remaining nearly 10,000 hectares of corn in the whole province are "presence" of this fast-acting and extremely powerful worm.
First discovered in Thanh Chuong, Do Luong, Anh Son, Dien Chau... in early March 2019, up to now, fall armyworm has caused severe damage on a large scale in almost all corn growing areas in the province. In the summer-autumn crop of 2019, the whole province planted over 9,000 hectares of corn, of which nearly 1,200 hectares have been infected with worms, of which nearly 400 hectares are severely infected.
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| Fall armyworms eat corn leaves. Photo: Phu Huong |
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| Corn shoots infected with fall armyworm. Photo: Mai Giang |
Dien Chau district currently has 175 hectares of summer-autumn corn on fertile soil and nearly 300 hectares of autumn-winter corn that were sown nearly a month ago. “The entire district has nearly 20 hectares of summer-autumn corn and over 100 hectares of autumn-winter corn infected with pests, of which 7 hectares are severely infected, many areas are not allowed to harvest. Worryingly, these are only the infected areas counted according to the prescribed density, but in reality, wherever there is corn, there are pests” - said Mr. Nguyen Van Phu, Head of the District Plant Cultivation and Plant Protection Station.
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| Many summer-autumn corn fields in Dien Thanh commune, Dien Chau district have been severely damaged by pests. Photo: Phu Huong |
Fall armyworms cause the most damage at the seedling stage until the flagging stage, and the earlier the damage, the higher the damage. The most worrying issue at present is the small summer-autumn corn areas and about 23,000 hectares of fall-winter corn are being planted from now until October. In addition to corn, the worms can move to damage other crops such as beans, peanuts, vegetables, etc.
Fall armyworm prevention must be based on the basic principles of the integrated pest management (IPM) program. Accordingly, priority should be given to farming measures such as clearing weeds around the area, careful tillage, crop rotation; using manual measures, using bait traps to kill worms; using bacterial preparations, protecting the natural enemies of worms... When the threshold for prevention is reached, it is necessary to use pesticides with active ingredients recommended by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development to spray when the worms are mostly in the 1st-3rd instar (corn at the 3-9 leaf stage), spraying in the early morning or cool afternoon. Spray twice, 7-10 days apart, the amount of water sprayed must be guaranteed from 400 - 600 liters/ha.
