Why ADOPT

With rising uncertainties in the region’s rain-fed agriculture due to the continent’s vulnerability to climate change, there is a demand and need to adapt the Push-pull technology to withstand increasingly adverse and changeable conditions.

The main objective of the project is to enhance food security and increase prosperity for resource-poor smallholder farmers in east Africa who are increasingly vulnerable to climate change. This is to be achieved by adapting and disseminating the Push-pull technology for the increasingly arid and hot conditions with less predictable rainfall associated with climate change.

The project has identified, tested and selected new drought tolerant trap and inter-crops that can be incorporated into the Push-pull system to enable its expansion into drier areas and develop capacity and promote wide-scale uptake. This  provides a robust system inherently suited to cope with less predictable climatic conditions. As an integrated platform technology it addresses the  key abiotic or biotic constraints (e.g. pest, weed and soil health) that becomes more severe as a result of climate change.