East African small-scale cereal farmers adopt new production techniques

The Swiss-based BioVision, Kilimo Trust Uganda and the Nairobi-headquartered ICIPE (African Insect Science for Food and Health) have recently achieved a major milestone towards maximising maize and sorghum production, while improving the health and income of small-scale farmers in East Africa.

This follows the collaboration of these organisations towards the development of a curriculum for Farmers Field Schools on the ICIPE's "push-pull" technology, which simultaneously combats stem-borer moths, striga weeds, and poor soil fertility.

Stemborers and striga together can, if not controlled, lead to as much as 100% yield losses of maize. As a result, although maize is the most important staple food in sub Saharan Africa, the region's average per hectare yield of this cereal is the lowest in the world, and far below the population's needs. Maize harvests that would be saved by controlling these two pests could feed an additional 27 million people in SSA. Unfortunately, small-scale farmers who contribute more than 80% of the continent's maize production often lack the money to buy synthetic pesticides, which are in any case not only harmful to the environment, but usually ineffective as well.

"Push-pull" is the result of a 10-year quest by Rothamsted Research, United Kingdom in collaboration with ICIPE, and Kenya's ministry of agriculture, to provide such farmers with environmentally-friendly and sustainable methods to control these two pests. The strategy uses a novel combination of forage plants which, when inter cropped with cereals, act as both a trap and a repellent for stem-borers and striga. The two plants so far employed by ICIPE are Napier grass, which attracts the moths, and desmodium, which produces semio-chemicals that repel stem-borers. Napier, planted as a border around the main crop, "pulls" them away from the cereal and leaving it protected. Desmodium is planted within the rows of maize or sorghum to "push" the pests away. In addition, the roots of desmodium generate several isoflavones, some of which inhibit the germination, while others prevent the attachment of striga seeds to the root of the cereal.

Currently, more than 7000 farmers in 19 districts in Kenya and in five districts in Uganda are practising push-pull, while training demonstrations have started in Tanzania. In these sites, "push-pull" has increased maize yields by an average of 25% in areas where only stem-borers are present, and by more than 80% where both stem-borers and striga are a problem. In addition, it has contributed to the augmentation of livestock production, especially on small farms where pressure on land is high, since both napier grass and desmodium provide quality fodder for livestock. The the technology also increases soil fertility as desmodium has nitrogen-fixing and moisture retention qualities.

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