28 November 2024, Zambia: Meet CABI researcher Dora Shimbwambwa who has been recognised as one of Bill Gates’s ‘Heroes in the Field’ for her efforts as part of a project focused on the village-based biological control of the potentially devastating fall armyworm pest in Zambia.
Dora was also part of the just ended African Women in Agricultural Research and Development’s (AWARD) One Planet Fellowship – African Learning Partner. The One Planet Fellowship aims to build a vibrant, highly connected, and intergenerational network of African and European scientist leaders equipped to lead research focused on helping Africa’s smallholder farmers adapt to climate change.
It is supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF), France’s BNP Paribas Foundation, the European Union, and Canada’s International Development Research Centre (IDRC).
Village-based biological control of fall armyworm in Zambia
Dora is working as part of the CABI-led ‘Village-based biological control of fall armyworm in Zambia’ project, funded by the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR) and in partnership with the Zambia Agricultural Research Institute (ZARI) and the University of Zambia (UNZA).
The project is advocating village-based biological control of the fall armyworm (Spodoptera frugiperda) in rural Zambia. It is helping to improve livelihoods and ensure greater food security for smallholder farmers by helping them produce their own safer-to-use and more environmentally friendly product to tackle the pest which can ravage maize crops.
Reduce the need for more toxic chemical pesticides
Special focus is placed on women and young farmers in communities where the project will seek to conduct more field trials of biocontrol agents as part of Integrated Pest Management (IPM) plans that reduce the need for more toxic chemical pesticides.
Dora was featured as part of Bill Gates’s ‘Heroes in the Field’ feature which shines the spotlight on amazing people who are changing the world – mostly ‘quietly’ and without ‘fame or recognition.’
As part of the feature, Dora was interviewed for a written article as well as a video highlighting her role to help Zambia’s smallholder farmers tackle the fall armyworm which can devastate crops if left untreated.
Dora said, “I was surprised and honoured to have been nominated by my mentor to feature as one of Bill Gates’s ‘Heroes in the Field’ and the opportunity that it gives me to showcase my work in partnership with all my colleagues at CABI and the MoA.
“Around 98% of smallholder maize farmers in Zambia are affected by the fall armyworm every cropping cycle and, in 2018 for example, it caused economic losses estimated at around US $159m.
“It is vital that we try and develop village-based solutions to the pest which can be produced by the farmers themselves and which are safer-to-use and more environmentally friendly.”
Range of possible biological control options
The project has identified that a range of possible biological control options for fall armyworm that includes baculoviruses and entomopathogenic fungi alongside 15 local parasitoids species that have been identified to develop successfully on the pest.
Farmers can produce the raw product on their own
As part of the CABI project, it is anticipated that physical exchanges between Australian researchers and the team of scientists in Zambia will take place to further investigate the small-scale production of M. rileyi and make it sustainable with local resources.
Results from the baculovirus work, another CABI project supported under the OneCGIAR Plant Health Initiative, has demonstrated that the technology works and is ready for validation and scaling out. The ACIAR funding will test the model at the village level where farmers can produce the raw product on their own as well as options for reaching scale.
Funding from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), meanwhile, developed an IPM strategy for fall armyworm in Zambia where the use of nature-based solutions has already been prioritized as a matter of policy.
(For Latest Agriculture News & Updates, follow Krishak Jagat on Google News) (+80 Million Farming Audience Visits Krishak Jagat’s Hindi Website – Click Here for Website)
