‘Fall Army Worm has caused such a panic,’ a senior scientist from the International Centre for Insect Physiology and Ecology told me, his voice tinged with disapproval, while rushing around Kisumu, already late for his next meeting. ‘It only causes a yield loss of about 20%. It’s not even worth chemical pest control.’ Many of the smallholder farmers I worked with during my fieldwork in western Kenya disagreed. ‘If we don’t spray, the worms destroy our crops,’ they repeated over and over. For them the FAW infestation that has been ongoing since 2017 has been extremely destructive, and many have turned to pesticides in response. The Department of Agriculture of the Kenyan government seemed to side with the farmers. In government offices, farmers’ cooperatives, and agricultural supplies shops I often came across posters like the three displayed here, dispensing an array of advice, ranging from merely listing chemical control as one of multiple options to control the worms, to naming specific pesticides to be used. Agrochemical companies, such as Syngenta, mirror this advisory style to promote their products. Together they contribute to a discourse in which the distinction between government and the agrochemical industry is not easily legible to farmers, and in which chemical control becomes the single most sensible response to an insect threat.
‘Fall Army Worm has caused such a panic,’ a senior scientist from the International Centre for Insect Physiology and Ecology told me, his voice tinged with disapproval, while rushing around Kisumu, already late for his next meeting. ‘It only causes a yield loss of about 20%. It’s not even worth chemical pest control.’ Many of the smallholder farmers I worked with during my fieldwork in western Kenya disagreed. ‘If we don’t spray, the worms destroy our crops,’ they repeated over and over. For them the FAW infestation that has been ongoing since 2017 has been extremely destructive, and many have turned to pesticides in response. The Department of Agriculture of the Kenyan government seemed to side with the farmers. In government offices, farmers’ cooperatives, and agricultural supplies shops I often came across posters like the three displayed here, dispensing an array of advice, ranging from merely listing chemical control as one of multiple options to control the worms, to naming specific pesticides to be used. Agrochemical companies, such as Syngenta, mirror this advisory style to promote their products. Together they contribute to a discourse in which the distinction between government and the agrochemical industry is not easily legible to farmers, and in which chemical control becomes the single most sensible response to an insect threat.