Participatory management of Striga in cereal-based cropping systems in eastern Uganda

Striga hermonthica is a parasitic weed that infects cereal crops often causing 30-100% crop losses on farmers’ fields. Past research has developed several effective Striga control strategies, most of which have not been adopted by farmers, partly because each technology was developed without considering farmers’ biophysical and socio-economic conditions, which often affect technology adoption. Agricultural development, however, can be accelerated through a process in which farmers participate in the testing and adoption process of new technologies. The overall goal of this project is to identify, validate and promote appropriate and sustainable Striga control technological packages that are adaptable to local farming conditions using participatory approaches. This project hypothesizes that active farmer involvement in the identification and on-farm evaluation of technologies will lead to high adoption rates of promising technologies and increase cereal crop production and thus improve farmer livelihoods. A baseline socioeconomic study is currently being conducted to assess farmers’ perceptions on Striga and its management using structured interviews and focus group discussions. Subsequently, on-farm trials will be conducted to evaluate the effectiveness and profitability of various promising management strategies on Striga control and crop productivity. A participatory rapid appraisal (PRA) has been done to establish the prevalence of Striga problem in Iganga in eastern Uganda, a major maize growing area. It was established that 12 out of 19 sub-countries were heavily affected by Striga. Maize was chosen to represent cereal crops in this project because its production is highly affected by Striga and it is an important cash/food crop with a high national priority. As part of this project two M.Sc. students are being trained; one student is handling socioeconomic aspects while the second student handles on-farm technology evaluation aspects of the project.