Plant health experts in the Phytosanitary Committee are looking at the question in more depth on July 17 and 18, but the broad lines of their approach are already clear. With the Commission's support, they plan to step up checks on imports of maize from the risk areas, to prevent rootworm from spreading. There will be more stringent monitoring at planting to ensure that seeds are not infected with the larvae of the pest. Importers will also be encouraged to take seed from different cultures, mixing up their origins to minimise exposure to contamination from a single source. The use of pesticides will be stepped up in areas where rootworm is discovered, and, as with other outbreaks, a buffer zone will be set up around cases of rootworm to stop it from spreading.
FAO project.
Meanwhile, the Rome-based UN Food and Agriculture Organisation said on July 16 it has concluded a USD2,260,000 regional project deal with the help of Italy that would help seven countries in Central and Eastern Europe to control the spread of rootworm, which it described as 'a major threat to corn production in the region'. Over the next three years, Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania, Serbia and Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and the Slovak Republic will benefit from the 20-year experience of FAO in participatory Integrated Pest Management programmes (IPM). The project aims to enable farmers to monitor and control the pests in their fields, keeping the use of expensive and potentially damaging and dangerous chemical pesticides to an absolute minimum.
Funded by the Italian Government, this initiative is the second of its kind to focus on regional food security with support from the FAO Trust Fund for Food Security set up after the World Food Summit to provide new impetus to the global fight against hunger.
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The worm from the West
The Western Corn Rootworm (Diabrotica virgifera LeConte) originated in the United States, where it remains a major corn pest. The worm moved to Europe in the early 1990s starting in the former Yugoslavia. Since then, it has caused serious economic damage to corn production in Serbia and Montenegro, Hungary, Croatia and Romania. In 2001, heavy presence of the worm was reported in Lombardia, Italy, and in 2002 in France. This regional project will build on the latest Western Corn Rootworm research results from the United States and Europe.
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