Farmers’ Perception of Fall Armyworm (Spodoptera frugiperda) as an Invasive Pest and Its Management
Waseem Akbar, Sumaira Yousaf, Muhammad Farhan Saeed, Wafa A. H. Alkherb, Asim Abbasi, Nazih Y. Rebouh, Nazia Suleman

TL;DR
This study explores how farmers in Punjab, Pakistan perceive and manage the fall armyworm pest in maize crops, highlighting gaps in awareness and the need for better education.
Contribution
The study provides insights into farmers' perceptions and management practices of fall armyworm in Pakistan, emphasizing the need for targeted awareness programs.
Findings
Most farmers recognized larvae as the most damaging stage of fall armyworm but had limited awareness of its biology.
Only 39% of farmers could correctly identify fall armyworm, and 34% recognized autumn as the peak infestation period.
Despite limited awareness, 86% of farmers used chemical treatments to manage fall armyworm effectively.
Abstract
This study investigated farmers’ perceptions and management of fall armyworm (FAW) pest in maize crop across nine districts of Punjab, Pakistan. The results showed that farmers generally had medium-sized farms, with experience of growing maize over ten years. The majority of the farmers grow maize as fodder, as well as a cash crop, availing both spring and autumn seasons. A few famers have better ability to identify FAW and consider autumn the peak infestation period of FAW. Despite limited awareness, most of the farmers recognized larvae as the most damaging stage and managed FAW using chemical treatments. The current study highlighted the need for better awareness of farmers regarding biology of FAW and also the understanding regarding its effective management strategies. This study was carried out with the aim of understanding how farmers perceive and deal with fall armyworm (FAW)…
Genes, proteins, chemicals, diseases, species, mutations and cell lines named across the full text — each resolved to its canonical identifier and authoritative record.
Click any figure to enlarge with its caption.
Figure 1
Figure 2Peer Reviews
No public reviews on file for this paper yet. If you reviewed it on a platform where reviews are public (OpenReview, ICLR, NeurIPS, ICML), you can paste yours below so the community can read it here.
Videos
No videos yet. Explain this paper in a talk, walkthrough, or lecture? Add one.
Taxonomy
TopicsInsect Resistance and Genetics · Insect Pest Control Strategies · Insect-Plant Interactions and Control
