UN agency signs agreement to help 7 European countries control rootworm
The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) today signed a $2,260,000 agreement to help seven countries in Central and Eastern Europe to control the spread of the western corn rootworm, a major threat to corn production in the region.
The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) today signed a $2,260,000 agreement to help seven countries in Central and Eastern Europe to control the spread of the western corn rootworm, a major threat to corn production in the region.
Funded by the Italian Government, the project aims to enable farmers to monitor and control the pests in their fields, keeping the use of expensive and potentially dangerous chemical pesticides to a minimum.
Henri Carsalade, FAO Assistant Director-General for Technical Cooperation, and Giuseppe Deodato, Italian Director-General for Development Cooperation, signed the regional agreement today in Rome.
They were joined by representatives from the Ministries of Agriculture of Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania, Serbia and Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and the Slovak Republic, the recipient countries.
Over the next three years, the initiative will help the countries to develop national Integrated Pest Management programmes (IPM) to effectively manage the pest at field level and contain its spread before it becomes a major threat to corn production in the region.
This initiative is the second of its kind to focus on regional food security with support from the FAO Trust Fund for Food Security.