Armyworm to bite China’s under pressure food supply within two months as trade war tariffs limit US crop imports

China’s domestic food security that has already been ravaged by African swine fever and is under pressure from increased tariffs from the trade war with the United States could be further hit by a devastating and rapidly spreading pest within the next two months, according to academics.

The fall armyworm has already affected farms in southern China, and could hit the country’s crop-growing heartlands in the north and northeast as temperatures rise, increasing the risks to crop production as Chinese tariffs restrict the country’s ability to purchase American crops as replacements.

China has already been forced to slaughter millions of pigs with African swine fever affecting all 31 autonomous regions and provinces within just nine months, trimming 20 per cent of the national supply and driving up prices.

And the trade tariffs imposed by China last week restrict purchase of US agriculture products, including pork, soybeans and corn.

The armyworm could now spread to the north and northeastern regions of the country as early as July, according to Hu Gao, professor of Entomology at the Nanjing Agricultural University, vastly expanding the damage that has been inflicted so far on 13 provinces and regions south of the Yangtze River, including Yunnan, Sichuan, Chongqing, Guangxi, Guizhou, Guangdong, Jiangxi, Hubei, Hunan, Zhejiang, Fujian and Hainan.