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Knowledge, Attitude and Practices Used in the Control of Striga in Maize by Smallholder Farmers of Western Kenya



Author(s)

Godfrey Nakitare Nambafu1, 2, Richard Ndemo Onwonga1, George Njomo Karuku1, Emmanuel Safaris Ariga3, Bernard Vanlauwe2 and Kristina Roing de Nowina2, 4

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DOI:10.17265/2161-6264/2014.03B.010

1. Department of Land Resource Management and Agricultural Technology, University of Nairobi, Nairobi 29053, Kenya
2. International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), Nairobi 30772-00100, Kenya
3. Department of Plant Science and Crop Protection, University of Nairobi, Nairobi 29053, Kenya
4. Department of Soil and Environment, Swedish University of Agricultural Science, Uppsala 7070, SE-750 07, Sweden

The production of maize is constrained by parasitic weeds, particularly Striga. A study was carried out to document farmers’ knowledge, attitude and practices on Striga control among smallholder farmers across three districts: Kisumu West, Busia and Teso South of Western Kenya. A multistage sampling technique was used to select the locations and farmers to be interviewed. A semi structured, open and closed ended questionnaire was administered leading to field experiment. Besides village meetings (39.2%), farmers got informed on farming methods under Striga weed farms and its control technologies through neighbours (2.5%), workshops and trainings (5.0%), field schools (3.7%), media (7.5%) and extension agents (10.8%). The attitudes of farmers towards Striga control varied but frequently cited: long term viability of the Striga seed (12.5%), difficult to control sharing of farm tools (10.8%), expensive technologies (13.3%), lack of adequate information (18.3%), labour intensive (15.0%), large farms for use of push and pull technology (1.7%) and time consuming (12.5%). Framers used various Striga control practices but traditional methods (25%) were among the most used (25%). Concerted effort involving researchers, extension agents and private sector are, therefore, required for wide scale dissemination and adoption of the existing modern control technologies.

Attitude, knowledge, practice, striga control technologies.