NAIROBI, May 23 (Xinhua) -- The outbreak and continued spread of fall armyworm (FAW) in Kenya is threatening food security, a Kenyan official disclosed on Wednesday.
Mwangi Kiunjuri, Cabinet Secretary of the Ministry of Agriculture and Irrigation, said the occurrence of the pest particularly in the Rift Valley region in northwest Kenya, the country's grain basket and seed maize producing areas, worsens the situation.
"We are forced to build partnerships with all stakeholders to help us reduce the spread of the pest," Kiunjuri said during a stakeholders meeting on FAW in Nairobi.
He attributed the emergence of pests and diseases such as FAW to changing climatic conditions, adding that during the period April-May 2017, 250,000 hectares of maize crop worth 31.5 million U.S. dollars was affected by the pest.
The CS noted that since the agriculture sector is the largest contributor to national economic growth, directly contributing about 31.5 percent to the country's gross domestic product (GDP), the sectors performance must be looked into keenly.
FAW is a migratory pest native to the Americas, and was reported on the African continent in September 2016 in the West Africa region.
It has since spread to almost all the sub-Saharan countries where it is causing severe damage, especially in maize fields and to more than 80 plant species.
