KNOWLEDGE FOR LIFE

development projects

Maize is a staple food crop across sub-Saharan Africa and is grown by small-scale farmers in many rural areas.

so what’s the problem?Cuts in farming subsidies however, led to a drop in maize production, threatening food security and leaving already poor farming families on the brink.

The Millennium Villages project aimed to develop sub-Saharan Africa one village at a time. Many of the agricultural efforts have been a great success and farmers are now producing many more crops than before. However, these achievements have led to new problems – the larger harvest need to be stored for longer periods, leaving it exposed to pests, which if left unchecked can decimate it.

Bad infestations of insects, such as the maize weevil and larger grain borer, can cause losses of up to 40% of the stored grain on a national scale. Individual families can lose everything. Mostly, the insects are transferred from the field to the grain stores when harvested and are often spread from farm to farm in old grain sacks. Fungi can also be an issue – especially when the grain is stored before being dried properly – as some produce a harmful toxin endangering humans and livestock.

helping farmers protect their maize harvest

locationsKenya, Malawi, Tanzania

dateApril 2008 – July 2008

project teamNoah Phiri

what is this project doing?CABI were brought in as specialist consultants to help solve the grain storage pest problem in Malawi, Kenya and Tanzania. The team, experts in helping farmers grow more and lose less, researched which varieties of maize are grown, which pests are causing the most damage and what the current drying, storage and pest management practices are. CABI’s staff also met with grain storage experts, government officials and other key informants to discuss the status of storage pests, and existing strategies for overcoming the issue. Finally, both short and long-term strategies to combat storage pests were drawn up.

results so farSurveys showed the larger grain borer to be the most damaging pest, frequently causing losses of 30 to 60%. Grain was often being poorly stored in makeshift storage areas, often by inexperienced local schoolteachers and others, and farmers lacked adequate information to manage maize pests in both the field and in storage.

To overcome these issues, we recommended that farmers should be given greater access to the right insecticides and trained in their proper use. Training should also show farmers how to identify different pests and how best to manage them. At a higher level, national strategies for reporting pests should also be put in to place to enable a better understanding of the scale of the problem. Farmers should also be shown how to minimize their crops exposure to pests whilst harvesting, handling and storing it, while larger community storage facilities should be fumigated before each season’s harvest. Lastly, new maize storage facilities should be built and their benefits promoted amongst farmers.

Through these recommendations, farmers should be able to make better use of their improved yields, improve their food security and increase their income in a sustainable way. Nationally, the countries should also benefit as the cost of pest related damage, currently estimated in the region of US$150 – 300 million, will be greatly reduced.

contactCABI, ICRAF Complex, United Nations Avenue, Gigiri, PO Box 633-00621, Nairobi, Kenya T: +254 20 72 24450 F: +254 20 71 22150 E: africa@cabi.org www.cabi.org/africa

www.cabi.org/africamaizeID

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Noah Phiri, Project Manager

sponsorsThe Millennium Development Goal (MDG) East and Southern Africa Centre