Source: http://www.ecns.cn/

China's agriculture authority on Tuesday warned local governments of an armyworm outbreak, pressing government departments to heed pest prevention and control advice to ensure grain security in the world's most populous nation.

A spokesman for the Crop Production Department of the the Ministry of Agriculture (MOA) said the recent outbreak of armyworms in major grain producing regions in northern and northeastern China has posed a severe threat to the production of corn and rice in the country.

"We haven't seen such a pest plague in so many places in almost a decade," the spokesman said in a new brief on the MOA website.