The ingenious solutions saving maize harvests in rural Africa
Sheila Halder, Farm Systems Coordinator, tells us why organic solutions to protecting staple crops seem to be providing the best results - for people and planet.
As Coronavirus grips much of the world, it’s easy for us to forget about other challenges people are facing in their daily lives. Last month we posted a statement about the Locust plague that has swept through East Africa, ravaging crops grown for both food and fodder.
The swarm was reported as the worst infestation of locusts for quarter of a century, and resulted from a sudden bout of higher than usual rainfall; we are unfortunately likely to see more of these swarms as the climate continues to destabilise.
Family farmers in rural Africa are familiar with many pests from aphids to African army worms but in recent years, there are new patterns and problems emerging, and keeping crops free from both infestations and poisonous pesticides is a daily challenge.
While minimising the impacts of locust swarms requires national and international coordination - and divides opinion over chemical or physical interventions - there are fortunately many local and organic solutions to common pests such as stemborer moths, whose larvae bore through the stems of young maize plants, destroying entire harvests.
Push-Pull technology
To respond to the challenge of stemborer moths we are training farmers in two techniques of companion planting that produce outstanding effects, naturally protecting plants from pests without the use of chemical pesticides as well as improving soil health. Developed in East Africa by ICIPE, Push-Pull is a locally appropriate way for family farmers to protect crops.
Conventional Push-Pull involves planting napier grass as a border crop and silver leaf desmodium intercropped with the maize.
Climate Smart Push-Pull is the second technique and this involves planting two particularly drought tolerant species in the system: brachiaria as a border grass and green leaf desmodium as the intercrop, able to cope with increasingly sporadic rains. Both of these techniques are affordable, organic and have the added benefit of producing locally grown fodder for livestock.
Lead peer farmer, Wise established his push-pull plot in December 2019. He told us,
“I have noticed that the areas where desmodium is well established there are few Stemborers compared to my conventional field adjacent - here nearly all the plants are infested… [and] the stemborer moth are destroying the plans which are food for my livestock. This technology is working, [it’s as if if] all the desmodium and the brachiaria were well established, I will have no challenges with this pest.” - Wise, Lead peer farmer
Time: 00:01
Audio: [Music]
Visual: Ripple Effect and Riverford logos. 'In partnership' text.
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Time: 00:05
Audio: [Music]
Visual: Point of view: walking down a maize path 'Push-pull technology: an innovative crop pest solution' text.
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Time: 00:10
Audio: Ripple Effect supports farmers in sub-saharan africa to grow themselves out of poverty
Visual: Camera spans onto couple under banana trees harvesting their crop
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Time: 00:15
Audio: by giving communities the hope and the means to secure their own futures from the land
Visual: Couple are walking hand-in-hand with their harvest
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Time: 00:20
Audio: Our approach empowers families with the confidence skills and self-belief to grow sufficient food and generate income
Visual: Photo of a smiling woman in bright clothing counting through savings
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Time: 00:27
Audio: While regenerating the natural environment protecting ecosystems and enhancing biodiversity.
Visual: Photo of cooperative sat together and a couple stood beside a keyhole garden
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Time: 00:33
Audio: As farm systems coordinator I work with our in-country teams to find and design innovative and cost-effective solutions to the challenges smallholder farmers face such as falling crop yields soil degradation and pests
Visual: Shelia Halder, Ripple Effect Farm System Coordinator talking
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Time: 00:48
Audio: Smallholder farmers are often wholly dependent on agriculture for their livelihoods; growing a variety of staple crops including maize
Visual: Woman walking through fields and harvesting crops such as maize
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Time: 00:57
Audio: Maize is one of the major crops grown in the world and in africa alone the lives of 300 million people depend on it
Visual: Shelia Halder, Ripple Effect Farm System Coordinator talking
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Time: 01:07
Audio: However erratic weather patterns combined with parasitic weeds such as Striga weed
Visual: Purple Striga weed plants growing in abundance
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Time: 01:12
Audio: And destructive insects like stembora moths
Visual: Hands investigate stembora moth larvae on a maize crop
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Time: 01:13
Audio: Can completely decimate maze crops resulting in widespread hunger and poverty
Visual: Ariel shot of a maize field
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Time: 01:19
Audio: The common response to these pests would be chemical pesticides but these are often devastating for ecosystems and water supplies
Visual: Shelia Halder, Ripple Effect Farm System Coordinator talking
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Time: 01:27
Audio: Smallholder farmers are often in a very difficult position, their families are severely malnourished but they don't have the means to protect their crops from pests
Visual: A couple tend to their crops
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Time: 01:37
Audio: [Narrator] Ripple Effect have teamed up with ICIPE to implement push-pull, an affordable nature-based solution to falling maize yield. The following explanation shows how it works
Visual: Ariel shot over fields of green crops
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Time: 01:48
Audio: To properly understand the need for push-pull we must first look at two pests; the stemborer moth and Striga weed
Visual: Animation shows Stemborer moth and Striga weed side by side
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Time: 01:56
Audio: First the stembora moth, they lay their larvae on maize stems and leaves and when they hatch the larvae literally bore through the stems and leaves hence their name.
Visual: Zooms in on Stemborer moth laying eggs on the maize plants. The larvae begin to eat the leaves
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Time: 02:06
Audio: Secondly Striga weed is a parasitic weed, its roots latch onto the maize and drain it of nutrients
Visual: Striga plant roots attach themselves to the maize plant roots
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Time: 02:14
Audio: Together stryga and the stembora can wipe out an entire crop
Visual: Hover above the maize field animation
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Time: 02:18
Audio: Push-pull technology is an integrated pest management system which can mitigate both pests.
Visual: "Push pull technology" text on screen
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Time: 02:25
Audio: Farmers start by intercropping maize with desmodium and because the maize is planted at normal spacing there's no sacrifice of planting area by adding it
Visual: Animation shows desmodium plants growing inbetween rows of maize
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Time: 02:33
Audio: Desmodium is a legume plant that produces airborne chemicals that repel the stembora moths or push them away from the maize
Visual: Animation shows smell rising from desmodium plants and the moth flying away
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Time: 02:41
Audio: Desmodium also induce suicidal germination of the strigaweed, clearing the soil of the parasitic weed
Visual: Animation shows the strigaweed roots dying off
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Time: 02:49
Audio: Being a legume, desmodium also fixes nitrogen in the soil, increasing nutrients and reducing soil degradation
Visual: Animation shows sparkling soil around the desmodium roots
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Time: 02:56
Audio: On the border of their maize plot farmers plant brachiaria or napier grass a great animal feed.
Visual: Animation shows plants growing around the maize field
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Time: 03:02
Audio: These grasses attract or pull the moths away from the maize.
Visual: Zoom into the naiper grass
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Time: 03:06
Audio: The moths lay their larvae on the grass but they are unable to survive on the leaves thus reducing the number of stembora moths.
Visual: Moth larvae on the grass begins to drop off
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Time: 03:14
Audio: By implementing push-pull technology,
Visual: Pans over animated maize field.
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Time: 03:16
Audio: Farmers see increased maze yields for human consumption as well as increased yields of livestock feed which they can use on their own farm or sell to neighbours or at the local market
Visual: Stembora moths fly away from the maiz to the naiper grass and the desmodum plants thrive. ICIPE logo in the top right hand corner
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Time: 03:29
Audio: [No Audio]
Visual: Push Pull in action' text
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Time: 03:34
Audio: John lives in Petauke, Zambia with his wife and children
Visual: John lives in Petauke, Zambia with his wife and children' text and photo of Joh with family of 6
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Time: 03:39
Audio: He began practicing push pull in 2018 and his maize harvests have greatly improved.
Visual: He began practicing push pull in 2018 and his maize harvests have greatly improved.' text with photo of John in his field.
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Time: 03:44
Audio: He says 'Push pull has helped me and my family to have a steady source of income with good yields from our maize now it's free from the stembora.'
Visual: Push pull has helped me and my family to have a steady source of income with good yields from our maize now it's free from the stembora.' text with same image
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Time: 03:52
Audio: The soil has improved and i've started feeding my goats with desmodium.
Visual: The soil has improved and i've started feeding my goats with desmodium.' Text
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Time: 03:54
Audio: I want to thank Ripple Effect for bringing this kind of technology to us I had never heard of it before'
Visual: I want to thank Ripple Effect for bringing this kind of technology to us I had never heard of it before' Text with image of John and his family.
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Time: 04:00
Audio: John plans to use his increased income to send his small children to school and reinvest in his farm.
Visual: John plans to use his increased income to send his small children to school and reinvest in his farm. Text with same image.
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Time: 04:07
Audio: [Music]
Visual: In partnership with Riverford. Text
But why is it called Push-Pull?
As explained in the video above, Maize farmers in rural Africa are in fact facing two big problems: Stemborer moths and striga weed.
The striga weed’s roots latch onto the maize underground and steal the nutrients from its roots. By planting desmodium between the maize, it tackles problem of striga weed while fertilizing the soil – desmodium is also a legume as well. It releases a chemical that tricks striga weed into germinating, without being near to a maize plant to support its growth.
The push part happens above ground where the scent released by the desmodium sees off the stemborer moths and prevents its larvae burrowing through the maize, before it has produced its edible harvest. The moths instead go into the grass trap crop where the caterpillars don’t survive.
Scaling-up solutions
In Zambia, we are working in the Petauke district, with thanks to the innocent foundation, to increase the numbers of family farmers who are trained in Push-Pull technology. Petauke is one of the driest regions in the country so climate smart methods to safeguard Maize harvests are essential, with two sub-species of stemborers, Busseola fusca and Chilo partellus, being the most problematic.
Olipa Phiri, Push-Pull Lead Farmer has high-hopes for this technology in Zambia:
“I am beginning to appreciate the benefits of Push-Pull Technology as the infestation levels on my crops were lower on the Push-Pull demonstration plot, compared to my main maize field. The maize on the demonstration plot looks healthy!” - Olipa Phiri, Push-Pull Lead Farmer
Helping farmers to grow and protect their crops while also protecting the environment is an approach which Ripple Effect have championed for the last 30 years. Read more about how we work, our unique approach to sustainable development, and why our projects get results
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