IPM Innovation Lab team visits Tanzania and Ethiopia

At the end of September, the IPM Innovation Lab (IPM IL) team traveled to Tanzania and Ethiopia to attend the annual Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) meeting and assess project progress in both countries. Allan Hruska, leader of the Fall Armyworm Taskforce for the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), joined as the newest TAC member. In Tanzania, the meeting participants visited a biocontrol center that has begun mass-producing and releasing two natural enemies of the fall armyworm, an initiative directed by IPM IL that the team hopes to replicate throughout East Africa. The fall armyworm ravages maize, a staple crop, and many other plant species throughout Asia and Africa. The pest has built resistance to most chemical pesticides and there are currently no fall armyworm-resistant maize varieties available, so the implementation of natural enemies against the pest remains an ecological, practical, and economical solution. The IPM IL also visited local villages to hear first-hand from farmers their concerns surrounding the fall armyworm and other emerging crop issues. In Ethiopia, IPM IL visited fields in Arba Minch, where collaborators have been releasing two natural enemies against the invasive weed Parthenium hysterophorus. The natural enemies have now established and the weed is demonstrating major defoliation. This progress is a significant win for the IPM IL, as the weed causes human and animal health issues, in addition to wiping out native vegetation throughout East Africa.