Maize, Cowpea Production: Institute Seeks Striga Elimination

The International Institute of Tropical Agriculture’s (IITA) research to nourish Africa programme report has indicated that striga control interventions will generate an estimated 8.6 million dollars worth of maize and cowpea grain annually.

The report was made available to our correspondent  on Tuesday in Abuja.

It said agricultural researchers in sub-Saharan Africa were making progress towards ridding the region of “striga’’, the deadly parasitic weed that infests cereals such as maize and cowpea farms.

Striga is a crop parasite that is considered to be one of the biggest constraints to agriculture in sub-Saharan Africa.

It is also known as the “violet vampire” because of the beautiful violet flowers it produces.

The striga weed mostly affects cereals such as maize, and legumes such as cowpea; it sucks and drains its host of water and vital nutrients to the point that the infested plant withers and dies.

Statistics show that farmers regularly lost between 40 per cent to 100 per cent of their crops, with total losses amounting to about 1.2 billion dollars every year and affecting the livelihoods of more than 25 million smallholder farmers.

According to the report, a private public partnership coordinated by the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), launched a collaborative effort known as the Integrated Striga Management in Africa (ISMA) project, in June 2011.

The four-year project funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in partnership with other organisations developed a package of striga control options for smallholder farmers in Kenya and Nigeria.

The report quoted the ISMA Project Manager, Mr Mel Oluoch as saying that about 250,000 farmers will directly benefit from the project.

He expressed optimism that the interventions would lead to 50 per cent more yields in maize and more than double the cowpea harvest in striga-infested areas.

The report further indicated that one year into the project, the initial outputs of the ISMA project had been encouraging.

“In Nigeria, the project worked with 100 communities in striga hotspots in Kano and Bauchi States and established 500 on-farm demonstrations of improved cowpea, maize, and soybean varieties along with striga management technologies.

“About 500 tonnes of certified seed of striga-resistant maize varieties were produced by participating seed companies and community-based seed producers and distributed to project beneficiaries. ’’

20 per cent to 50 per cent, and lessened striga incidences by 22 per cent  to 88 per cent compared to the commonly grown farmers’ varieties and commercial hybrids.

“Partner seed companies and community seed producers have also produced some 142 tonnes of certified seeds of striga-resistant cowpea varieties, with almost 80 tonnes sold to farmers across 100 communities in the two states.

“The project has trained some 3,500 farmers on group dynamics, participatory approaches, modern crop management, and Striga control practices in Northern Nigeria.

“In addition, the project has also disseminated striga management technologies to about 38,000 Nigerian farmers through farmer-to-farmer knowledge transfer, on-farm demonstrations, field days, and radio,’’ the report stated.

It also indicated that researchers working under the ISMA project also conducted field evaluation of the effectiveness of bio control technology against  the pest in maize farms of Northern Nigeria.

Their findings show that the bio control agent and resistant maize combination reduced striga incidence by 26 to 60 percent and also resulted in 68 per cent more yield compared to farms that grew farmer-preferred varieties alone.

The report added that the successful models in the two countries would be scaled out to other sub-Saharan African countries with similar ecologies where striga is also a major concern to maize and cowpea production systems.