Farmer evaluation of pesticide seed-coating to control fall armyworm in maize

Abstract

The arrival of fall armyworm (FAW) in Africa could cause large losses in maize production and affect food security. A new and promising technology to control the pest in the early stages of the maize plant's development is a seed-coating with the insecticide Fortenza Duo, developed by Syngenta and demonstrated in trials and demonstrations during the 2018/19 season in Zambia. Given the urgency of countering the invasion, this study was designed as a rapid and low-cost participatory evaluation of the technology, taking advantage of existing trials and demonstrations while adjusting the standard methodology to fit their lay-out and the timing of the study. The study was organized around an existing trial at the Zambia Agricultural Research Institute, where 44 farmers were invited at mid- and end-seasons, and six on-farm demonstrations organized by Syngenta, where 202 farmers were invited at the end of the regular production season. These evaluations were supplemented with a survey of 153 randomly selected farmers who hosted the demonstrations, and another 162 farmers from the same villages as control. The results showed that farmers scored seed-coated maize plots higher than other non-treated plots during the mid-season evaluation of the trial, but not higher than plots treated with other pesticides. At the end-season, seed-coated maize received slightly higher scores in the overall evaluation but did not score differently for FAW resistance. During the evaluation of on-farm demonstrations, farmers scored the seed-coated maize higher than average for several criteria, in particular for germination/crop stand and resistance to FAW and stalk borer, but the demonstrations did not include a control of untreated maize for comparison purposes. During the survey, however, farmers observed that only 50% of fields with seed-coated maize got infested with FAW vs. 80% in the control. Further, in fields with seed-coated maize FAW infestations occurred about two weeks later than in untreated maize plots. When choosing maize varieties, farmers indicated that yield, grain weight and germination were very important attributes, followed by drought resistance, number of cobs and grain size and, in seventh place, resistance to FAW. When choosing pesticides, farmers listed four criteria as important: convenience, low health risk, low cost, and labor requirements, and listed one criterion, odor, as of minor importance. We concluded that farmers generally evaluated the technology positively. The technology is likely to decrease infestation and damage by FAW, and fit the criteria of farmers in selecting maize seed and pest control methods. However, the results were not conclusive as the demonstrations did not include a proper control.