Green, fluffy, about an inch long... It's a worm that is indirectly eating food off your plate. Corn and sugarcane are among its favorite.

And its name is the fall armyworm.

"The armyworm spreads and invades quickly. It landed in China in January of this year for the first time. And it has spread from Yunnan Province to the north," said Pan Wenbo, director of crop management department at Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs (MARA).

Native to the Americas, ravaging Africa and now spreading to Asia, this new species of pest has been found on over 10,000 square kilometers of farmland across 25 provinces in China, posing major threats to the nation's food and sugar supply.

The Chinese government is taking urgent measures, especially in pesticide research.

"We mainly took biological methods and reduced our dependence on chemical pesticides. Twenty-five microbiological pesticides have been selected to help local farmers," said Zhu Enlin, deputy director of crop management department at MARA.

With expert advice and intensive monitoring, production loss has been minimized to 5 percent in southwestern China, one of the hardest-hit areas.

"For now we haven't found a worm in the northeastern territories. The main corn area in northeastern part of the country hasn't seen any loss so far," Pan said.

But once the armyworm lives through the coming winter, experts say it will pose a major threat to China's agriculture security. The government is on the alert and officials say they will strengthen their controls for the coming months.