Farmers adopt use of repellent crops to beat weeds and pests

Farmers affected by climate change are set to benefit from a new initiative by the International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology (Icipe) that promises to stabilise production and increase yields nearly three fold.

The climate-smart concept addresses challenges of insect pests (stemborers), the parasitic weed striga, poor soil fertility, soil moisture management and the need for high quality animal feed.

The technology, which the Icipe scientists have been developing for about 20 years, encourages the use of drought-tolerant repellent to intercrop and and trap crops to create borders.

Another practice involves intercropping cereals with a pest repellent plant that drives away or deters stemborers, which mainly attack maize.

“An attractant trap plant, for instance Napier grass, is planted around the border of crops, with the purpose of attracting and trapping pests,” said Charles Midega, an Icipe scientist and lead study author.

“As a result, food crops are left protected from the pests. Napier grass also inhibits the growth of the striga weed.”

Aside from the insect-repellent benefits of using napier grass, its serves as a high quality fodder.

The researchers in a study found that in fields where farmers use the climate-smart application, only about five per cent of the maize crop was destroyed by stemborers compared to 40 per cent where the technology was lacking.

Repellent crops effectively controlled the Striga weed menace while an average of 20 Striga plants emerged around each individual maize plant where outdated farming methods were used.

The farmers currently applying this adapted version are living in the drier areas of western Kenya, eastern Uganda, the Lake Victoria basin, Tanzania and northern Ethiopia.

The study shows that farmers using the practice in areas experiencing dry and hot weather due to climate change are now harvesting around 2.5 times more than those not using the method.

“Farming systems in sub-Saharan Africa are dominated by mixed crop-livestock systems and cultivable land is becoming less due to population increase,” said professor Zeyaur Khan, the Icipe leader of the programme.

“There is need for technologies such as the climate-adapted push–pull which allows for intensified agriculture.”