Evaluation of the piloting of push pull technology in controlling striga and stemborerin maize and sorghum areas of semi-arid northern Ethiopia
AshEse Journal of Agricultural Science
Vol. 1(7), pp. 071-081, November, 2015
ISSN: 2059-1225
© 2015 AshEse Visionary Limited
Full Length Research
Hailu Araya1*, Kifle Gereziher2, Dejene Abera2, Haileselassie Ghebre Mariam3, Fasil Reda4, Kidu Gebremeskel2, Sue Edwards1*, Hailu Legesse5, Endris Mohammed1, Arefayne Asmelash1 and Sara Misgina1
1Institute for Sustainable Development, P.O.Box 171 code 1110, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
2Ethiopian Institute Agriculture Research, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
3Aksum University, Aksum, Ethiopia.
4Formerly Agricultural Transformation Agency, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
5Tahtai Maichew District Agriculture office, Wukro Marai, Ethiopia
*Corresponding author. E-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.; This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
Received July, 2015; Accepted August, 2015
Ethiopia is a significant maize and sorghum producer in Africa regardless of the disease, pest and weed challenges. Maize and sorghum play significant role for millions of poor Ethiopians. They significantly produced and consumed as food by farming household. The national average yield of maize per hectare for Ethiopia is about 3.0 ton, which is below the world average (4.5 ton). Sorghum is particularly a desirable crop for smallholder farmers in Ethiopia as it is relatively drought tolerant. Despite the tremendous potential of sorghum in Ethiopia, smallholder farmers continue to grow most importantly with drought, striga and stemborer. The losses attributed to striga weed and stem-borer range between 30 and 100 percent in most areas and are often exacerbated by the low soil fertility prevalent. Many controlling measures such as cultural, chemical, genetic, and biological options have been tried with limited success including crop rotation, trap cropping, intercropping, or multi-year fallow, are not adopted. Today the productions of these crops in Ethiopia are growing over time through different means. Push Pull Technology is one of the technologies used to boost production at different levels. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to evaluate and present the results of the piloting of the different demonstrations and experimentations of this technology under research stations and farmers’ fields involving farmers, extension workers, researchers, academicians and civil society organizations. The evaluation shows where working with farmers creates interaction, build trust and come up with a different idea like controlling orobanche weed.
Key words: Maize, sorghum, striga, stem-borer, push pull technology.