First Africa Congress on Conservation Agriculture Lusaka, ZAMBIA 18-21 March 2014 Zeyaur Khan 1 , John Pickett 2 , Charles Midega 1 and Jimmy Pittchar 1 1 International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology, Nairobi, Kenya 2 Rothamsted Research, Harpenden, United Kingdom www.push-pull.net Climate-smart push-pull: A conservation agriculture technology for food security and environmental sustainability in Africa
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Climate smart push-pull a conservation agriculture technology for food security and environmental sustainability in africa
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First Africa Congress on Conservation
Agriculture Lusaka, ZAMBIA
18-21 March 2014
Zeyaur Khan1, John Pickett2, Charles Midega1 and
Jimmy Pittchar1
1International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology, Nairobi, Kenya 2Rothamsted Research, Harpenden, United Kingdom
www.push-pull.net
Climate-smart push-pull: A conservation agriculture technology for food security and
environmental sustainability in Africa
HUNGER AND
POVERTY IN
AFRICA • Africa faces increasingly serious problems in its ability to
feed its rapidly growing population, resulting in high hunger and poverty incidences.
• Africa’s productivity is the lowest in the world (around 1t/ha compared with 2.4t/ha in South Asia, 3.2t/ha in Latin America and 4.5t/ha in East Asia and Pacific)
• The major production constraints are pests, weeds and degraded soils.
• Ecologically sustainable growth in agricultural productivity is essential to end hunger and poverty and ensure food security, by naturally reducing incidence of the major constraints to productivity
Maize worth US$ 1.5b is lost annually due to stemborers in
SSA
Chilo partellus
Busseola fusca
24% of the total maize cropping area in SSA is infested with
Striga. Value of maize lost due to Striga is at least US$ 1.2 b
What is ‘Push-Pull’ Strategy?
The ‘Push-Pull’ strategy is a novel approach in pest management which uses a repellent intercrop and an attractive trap plant. Insect pests are repelled
from the food crop and are simultaneously attracted to a trap crop.
Major constraints How Push-pull addresses Constraints
Low soil fertility Increased nitrogen fixation by the intercrop
Degraded land Control soil erosion; increased organic matter and soil physical
properties
The parasitic striga
weed Striga control by the intercrop, striga seed depletion
Stemborer pests Effective stemborer control by companion plants, and natural
enemies
Moisture stress Soil moisture conservation, improved water holding capacity by
intercrops
Low crop yields Increased cereal yields (maize from 1 to 3.5t/ha; sorghum 0.8t to
2t/ha; millet 0.4t to 0.8t/ha)
Shortage of livestock
fodder
All year round quality fodder from the trap and intercrop plants
leading to improved milk production
Loss of biodiversity Increased abundance and diversity of beneficial organisms
Shortage of labour Reduced labour requirement for land preparation and weed
control
Developing long term sustainability and system
resilience
•We make the best use of locally adapted crop varieties and
livestock breeds through their management;
•We harness agro-ecological processes such as biological
nitrogen fixation, allelopathy, predation and parasitism;
•We avoid the unnecessary use of external inputs;
•We minimise the use of practices that have adverse
impacts on the environment and human health;
•We make productive use of human capital - knowledge and
capacity to adapt and innovate as well as social capital to
resolve common landscape-scale problems.
Technological, environmental and socio-economic
interactions
Science & technology • Improved crops
• improved agro-ecological management
Environment • soils
• water
• climate
• biodiversity
Social and economic factors
• producers
• consumers
• farmers
• health
• livelihoods
• markets
• Institutions, infrastructure, policies
• Globalisation
Understand farmers, their systems
Building system productivity, outputs and resilience
Technology scaling up options and pathways
Human capacity
Impact
Constraints on production
Yield increase impacts
Technological solutions to environmental stresses
Social impacts of environmental change
Environmental impacts of choices
Sustainable Green Revolution in Africa ?
A green revolution in Africa will come from adoption of simple, environmentally sustainable and low cost platform technologies like push-pull, which are developed by understanding and exploiting basic and applied sciences. These technologies will address food security and livelihood of smallholders without requiring extra resources for crop protection and soil improvement and without causing any ecological and social harm.
THANK YOU
Conservation methods for better livelihoods, better future…