With funding from the European Commission, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the CGIAR Fund Council (through the IITA-led CRP1.2 Integrated Systems for the Humid Tropics-Humidtropics), icipe and partners identified a more adaptable and resilient desmodium species, Desmodium intortum, commonly known as greenleaf, as a component of the successful push-pull technology for integrated management of the key constraints affecting cereal production in sub-Saharan Africa (cereal stemborer pests, the parasitic striga weeds and poor soil fertility). ..More....
One of the bottlenecks hindering rapid uptake of the Push–Pull technology is the fact that the intercrop, desmodium, although quality fodder, is not an edible plant for humans and replaces beans which are traditionally interplanted with maize. Beans constitute a major source of protein for the resource-poor farmers that cannot be compensated by a higher consumption of dairy products and meat that result from the fodder component provided by desmodium. Therefore, in an effort to address this constraint, we undertook a series of studies in Kenya to More......
The aim of our study was to assess the potential role of greenleaf desmodium, Desmodium intortum (Mill.) Urb. in a combined management of striga and stemborers, which would lead to development of a suitable Push–Pull strategy for sorghum. Relative to other Desmodium spp., D. intortum withstands drought conditions better and wilts less. It also has a relatively higher nitrogen-fixing ability, over 300 kg N/ha per year under optimum conditions and, therefore, is more appropriate as an intercrop for the degraded environments where sorghum cultivation is widely practiced..More....
Finger millet (Eleusine coracana (L.) Gaertn.), also known as African millet, is one of the main cereal crops grown in the drier areas of Asia and Africa. Finger millet is an indigenous African cereal that is well adapted to African semi-arid and sub-tropical agronomic conditions. It is grown globally on over 4 million hectares and is the primary food and cash crop for millions of people in tropical dry land regions. It is indigenous to Eastern Africa where it is grown by smallholder farmers, with Uganda (up to 500,000 ha), Ethiopia (238,000 ha) and Kenya (around 65,000 ha) being some of the major producers of the crop in the region. Finger millet has outstanding attributes as a subsistence food and fodder crop, and has nutritional qualities superior to rice and is equivalent to wheat. Despite the importance of finger millet as a food, cash and fodder crop, its productivity remains low in most of the areas where it is grown. The main biotic constraints upon its efficient production are stemborers and Striga.More......
Our Goal
“To end hunger and poverty for
10 million people by extending Push-Pull
technology to 1 million households in
sub-Saharan Africa by 2030”, Zeyaur Khan, Coordinator,
Push-Pull Programme
Research Partners
