Writer: Maureen Agena. PHOTO/COURTESY
Africa is dealing with an incursion of pests such as the fall armyworm that continues to invade and rapidly spread across large areas. The pest has now become a major threat to sustainable food production and livelihood.
Moreover, millions of people in Africa depend on cereals, principally maize, sorghum, rice, and millet, for their food security and livelihoods. However, the production of these crops is seriously affected by constraints such as stemborers, the parasitic weed Striga, low and declining soil fertility, the ever-changing climate and the lack of knowledge on how to address these problems. As such, affordable and acceptable solutions are needed to overcome these constraints which threaten the livelihood of smallholders.
World over, the emergency response to pest and disease invasions by farmers has been the widespread use of chemical pesticides. For many farmers, the limited or no knowledge of eco-friendly technologies that are compatible with other sustainable pest management options, has, in a way, worked to their disadvantage.
Within the context of Integrated Pest Management, biological control and host plant resistance have been used to reduce reliance on chemical pesticides.
The flustering headline “Pesticides the silent killer” (Daily Monitor, 23 December 2024) caught my attention and had me reading the entire piece. Then the subsequent response by Prof. Ogenga Latigo, a professor of entomology, gave more context to the teething issues around the application of pesticides.
He noted that none of the scientists claim that the pesticides used in agriculture are harmless, he also asserted that for as long as people continue to grow improved crops, they will not be spared from the increased pests and disease attacks on these crops. Prof. Latigo reminded us that when better and safer pesticides are developed and verified by scientists, they never cling to the old pesticides but rather recommend new ones for safer and effective use.While pesticides give short-term reduction to the pest damage, there are problems associated with the development of insecticide resistance and detrimental effects to biodiversity, human life, and the environment.
Therefore, eco-friendly technologies can be adopted to substitute the use of these harmful pesticides.One of such technologies is the well documented ‘Push-Pull’ technology, developed over the past 24 years by the International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology (icipe), Rothamsted Research, United Kingdom, and other partners in East Africa to efficiently manage the fall armyworm, scientifically known as Spodoptera frugiperda.
The “push-pull” technology involves intercropping cereals with a pest repellent forage legume, which drives away or deters stemborers from the target food crop.Today over 100,000 farmers around Eastern Africa (western Kenya, eastern Uganda and Lake region of northwestern Tanzania, Ethiopia, Rwanda) are reported to use the push–pull technology (PPT), with significant positive effects on food security. Other countries like Malawi and Zambia in Southern Africa have also adopted the application of Push-Pull technologies.
To ordinary famers, this is complex information to both only digest and apply to their farming practices unless guided by the experts. It is therefore prudent for agriculture research centres, universities, scientists, researchers and the media to ensure effective transfer of knowledge and technologies by instituting strategies to translate research into tangible products, while building indigenous capacity to use and adapt them to local conditions.
Only when farmers own these technologies will they use them to serve the purpose for which they were intended. Indeed, pesticides are here to stay but let us also invest in knowledge transfer of ecologically sustainable mechanisms to control pests and diseases.
Maureen Agena ICT4D Consultant, Ex- Sr. Communications Specialist at
icipe, Kenya
