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Warming weather creates conditions for insects to migrate, breed

*

Armyworms damaged 40% of onion crops in Philippines last year

*

Natural farming methods could help protect against
loss to pests

By Geela Garcia

BAYAMBANG, Philippines, Sept 29 (Thomson Reuters Foundation)
- I n the northwestern Philippine town of Bayambang, long
known as the onion capital of Pangasinan province, an invasion of the
crop-devouring armyworms has stolen farmer Merlita Gallardo's
income - and her husband.

The family's half hectare (1.2 acres) of onion fields - which
once brought them a lucrative income - has been ravaged by the pest
since 2016, when rising temperatures helped drive a surge in armyworms,
bringing devastation to hundreds of the area's farmers.


To combat the infestation, many farmers took out loans to pay the
escalating costs of pesticides, racking up massive debts they
have struggled to pay back.

As Gallardo's family watched the amount they owed climb to about 600,
000 Philippine pesos ($10,290) her husband took his own life
in January 2021.

"He drank pesticide to kill himself," said Gallardo, 49,
who also grows corn, now the only crop she has
to support her five children and to try to slowly pay off the family's debt.


"He was probably thinking about the money we lost and all our debts," she told the
Thomson Reuters Foundation, sitting on the patio
of her home.

Scientists have warned that crop-damaging pests
will only become more destructive as climate
change brings ever hotter weather and more unseasonable rains.


In places like the Philippines, now unsustainable farming practices leave rural
communities unable to adapt, prompting calls to shift to smarter and greener farming.


Ryan Damaso, a coordinator at the farmers' group MASIPAG, which
focuses on sustainable farming, said the government needs
to change its laws and support practices to promote agroecology, to create an agricultural system more in tune with nature.


"It's not the farmers' fault if they're buried in debt. The problem is rooted in the policies of the state. The government needs to see agriculture as a holistic process of food production," he said.


ONION SHORTAGE

A heating planet has created conditions for pests to enter and breed in new regions, allowing them
to expand through - and devour - ever larger areas, explained
Yubak Dhoj G.C., a senior agricultural officer
at the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization.

"A changing climate (also) means infestations may occur at different times than usually expected and catch farmers off guard," he said.


He pointed to the desert locust invasion of 2020, when vast swarms - some the size of
cities - swept across Southwest Asia and the Horn of Africa,
feasting their way through hundreds of thousands of hectares of crops and
grazing land.

Scientists said erratic weather linked to global warming had
created ideal breeding conditions for the insects to surge in numbers
not seen in a quarter of a century.

In the Philippines, armyworm - a pest known locally
as harabas - was first reported in Pangasinan in 2016, when a major infestation ravaged over 1,000 hectares of land, said
municipal agriculture officer Zyra Orpiano.

Since then, there have been infestations about every three years.



A 2019 paper by researchers from the National Crop Protection Center at the University of the Philippines Los Baños noted
that, along with extreme climate events triggered by El Niño - a warming of ocean surface temperatures in the Pacific that occurs every few years - the overuse of pesticides
also played a role in the outbreak.

Using too much pesticide can cause insects to build up resistance to the chemicals, which in turn leads farmers
to use more pesticide, trapping them in an expensive, ineffective cycle.



The latest government figures show last year's onion armyworm infestation damaged about 212 hectares of the crop, nearly 40% of the total national onion-growing area.


The resulting drop in production has contributed to a countrywide onion shortage, the
Department of Agriculture warned in August, leaving families without
one of the key ingredients for many Filipino dishes.


"We don't mean to make you cry," fast food giant Burger King
quipped in a Facebook post announcing it was out of fresh onions across the
country.

Officials said supply won't be able to meet expected demand until November.


Mitchy Medrano, 53, a small-scale farmer in Bayambang, said
she can barely eke out a living after spending months trying to save her
crops from ravenous onion armyworms.

She had to pawn her late husband's land to cope with skyrocketing fuel and fertiliser costs
triggered by the war in Ukraine and only made 50,000 pesos ($850) from her
most recent harvest, a tenth of what she brings in with a
good yield.

"We're able to get by because I plant eggplant for sustenance," said Medrano, who wants the government to help farmers pay for pesticides and other resources they need to protect their onion crops.


"I want to feed my family delicious food, but we can't afford it."

SUSTAINABLE FARMING

Orpiano, the municipal agriculture officer, said pest management training offered by the government since the
first armyworm infestation in 2016 had helped soften the financial impact of
the latest invasion.

Farmers, for instance, have been taught which plant varieties are resistant
to armyworms and how to use organic pesticides, because chemical-based pesticides can turn the soil acidic, making it more susceptible to
pests, she explained.

Filipino farmers need to ditch chemical pesticides and stop cultivating only one crop at a time,
which can leave them with no other source of income if pests
target that crop, said Damaso at MASIPAG.

"Not all pests consume all types of crops. Farmers who vary their crops can control infestations and prevent significant losses," he said.


Back in Bayambang, Gallardo said she often loses sleep worrying about her debts.


But farming is all she knows.

"I dropped out of school (as a child) because my family could not afford it. We continue to farm because this is the only way we know to survive," she said.


($1 = 58.3060 Philippine pesos) Originally published on: website (Reporting by Geela Garcia in Bayambang;
Editing by Beh Lih Yi, Jumana Farouky and Laurie Goering. The Thomson Reuters Foundation is the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters.
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