Institute in Yunnan wants to turn county into base to fight pests

A senior agricultural official has expressed a desire to convert a county on the Chinese border with Laos and Vietnam into a strategic base for fighting significant cross-border crop pests and diseases in Southeast Asia, with a specific focus on combating the fall armyworm.

Dubbed a "global challenge" by plant scientists, the fall armyworm is a highly destructive pest that primarily targets corn. It entered China's Yunnan province from Myanmar toward the end of 2018 and swiftly spread to various provinces, posing a serious threat to agricultural production.

The initiative to establish the base was announced at an event organized by the Institute of Plant Protection of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences in Yunnan's Jiangcheng Hani and Yi autonomous county, which borders both Laos and Vietnam to the south.