[Geo4All] USAID Offers Prize Money to Combat Fall Armyworm in Africa

[Suchith Anand]

Dear colleagues,


The U.S. Agency for International Development is offering prize money for ways to combat the fall armyworm, a crop-eating pest that has spread across sub-Saharan Africa.


The USAID warned last week the pests threaten the livelihood of millions of African farmers.“It is targeting maize, a vital staple crop for many families in Africa, and we are calling up on our partners to mobilize their solutions to work with us to control fall armyworms,” said Regina Eddy, coordinator of the Fall Armyworm Task Force at the USAID Bureau of Food Security.


The agency is offering a prize of $150,000 for the most viable solution, two awards of $75,000 to the "most promising" solutions, and two awards of $50,000 to an "early stage" solution that shows the most potential.


More details at

https://www.voanews.com/a/usaid-offering-prize-money-to-combat-fall-armyworm-in-africa/4364446.html


I request Geospatial and RS community colleagues to contribute their expertise for this.


Best wishes,


Suchith


PS: There is some amazing work done already by Ron Fortunato and colleagues at GeoForAll lab team at AWorldBridge on this. I thank them for their exceptional determination and efforts in contributing technical excellence and substantive achievements to assisting small-holder farmers in Africa in managing the Fall Armyworm through the Fall Armyworm Monitoring & Early Warning System mobile app .  They built this for  the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)  of the United Nations. More details at https://www.osgeo.org/foundation-news/aworldbridge-geoforall-lab-delivers-for-the-food-and-agriculture-organization-fao-in-africa/





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