Status of Fall Armyworm (Spodoptera frugiperda), Biology and Control Measures on Maize Crop in Ethiopia: A Review

Abstract

Maize (Zea mays) is one of the main and popular cereal crops due to its high value as stable food as well as its stover demand for animal feed and fuel and even for construction purposes. Despite its current productivity is higher than other major cereal crops, the yield productivity is below its potential. These are due to many biotic and abiotic factors that can contribute to its yield potential of productivity to be below the previous productivity. The Fall Army Worm (FAW) is among the major factors contributing to low productivity currently in Ethiopia from its introduction in February 2017. Now it has covered about 52, 962 hectares in 144 districts in six of the major maize-growing regional states, namely Benishangul-Gumuz, Amhara, Tigray, Gambella, Oromia and Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples’ Region. FAW, a new devastating insect pest is one of serious major problems for agricultural crop production especially under police family (maize) in Ethiopia under warm and humid conditions. This is due to its ability to breed rapidly, to migrate, and to feed on a wide range of host plants and these make it very difficult to control. Nonetheless, there are several ways of managing the pest reported in other parts of the world that can potentially be adapted and/or validated and used in Ethiopia. Hence, to manage these sporadic pests we have to use different management options. Among those, cultural, chemical, biological and integrated pest management is commonly used in pest infestation. Therefore, this paper initiated with the objective of reviewing the Status of fall armyworm (Spodoptera frugiperda), Biology and control measures on maize in Ethiopia.