Past Featured Articles

Fighting the Swarm: An Interview with Dr. Roger Price on Protecting Agriculture from Desert Locusts

There is no debate that the desert locust is one of the most destructive migratory pests in the world. Swarms of desert locusts are so massive that they are measured in kilometers, and a single locust can eat its weight in food in a day. This, coupled with locusts’ exponential breeding rates, can lead to unmatched loss of crops and farmland across entire countries, devasting the local communities and threatening food security across the planet.

As of June 2020, much of East Africa was facing a desert locust crisis. The situation is particularly acute in Kenya, Somalia and Ethiopia. To understand the global implications of locust swarms on food security, CropLife International spoke with Dr. Roger Price of the Plant Protection Research Institute in Pretoria, South Africa.

CropLife: Thank you for agreeing to be interviewed, Dr. Price. Can you please tell us what makes locusts so damaging to agriculture and food security?

Dr. Price: It’s the sheer number of insects per swarm, the sheer weight of food that swarms can eat a day, and the unpredictability of their paths—they rise very quickly and in great numbers.

Getting bioenergy from Crop waste instead of burning them

The problem? Burning crop residues. Although it causes a variety of health issues and significantly raises levels of pollution, it is a common practice in India and many other countries around the world. The solution? Turn the crop residues into something useful, such as bioenergy.

The scale of the problem is huge. Around late September and October, farmers in India’s Punjab and Haryana, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh regions burn an estimated 35 million tonnes of crop waste after harvesting. Without collection, transportation or suitable storage options, burning what’s left of the crop is really the only viable option for most farmers. This practice has increased in India in recent years with the use of combine harvesters, machines that harvest grain but discard the straw.

However, burning residues is negatively impacting soils, biodiversity and air. Every winter, pollution levels spike and thick smog hangs over New Delhi. This is largely due to the burning of rice straw, combined with the exhaust fumes from heavy traffic, open fires for cooking or the burning of rubbish to keep warm.

High Bt maize yields impress Kenyan farmers

Kenyan farmers, impressed by the high yields realized in GMO open field trials, are urging the government to speed up the process of allowing them to access Bt maize.

The farmers say the bountiful returns from the Bt maize reminds them of decades long gone when their parents and grandparents used to harvest large amounts of the crop from their fields.

Speaking during a visit to the Kenya Agriculture and Livestock Research Organization (KALRO) National Performance Trial (NPTs) site in Thika, part of the TELA maize project during an exposure learning tour, the farmers expressed their great interest in trying the Bt maize.

The NPTs were planted in October last year and the Thika site demonstrates the performance of Bt maize candidates in comparison with conventional non-Bt and commercial verities.

Build Africa Back to ‘Better’…not Just to ‘Normal’

Economist Dr. Rabah Arezki says African leaders need to come up with ideas that will make the continent’s economy better than it was before the coronavirus pandemic hit.

Since the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a global pandemic in March 2020, countries, societies, and individuals have struggled to respond to the pandemic’s devastation of health systems, economies, trade, and human wellbeing. While Africa has been spared the pandemic’s harshest health impacts, it has absorbed a heavy economic burden.

The economic crisis caused by the pandemic has demonstrated the need to rethink Africa’s development model, as the world contemplates emerging from the pandemic and aims to build back economies quickly following the current shock—and ensure resilience against future ones.

Farmers Experience Increased Revenue through Sorghum Farming

As Purity Njeru walks through one of her farm in Tharaka South Sub County, Tunyai Location, Tharaka Nithi County, she points to the bounty of growing sorghum.

“I have practiced farming for several years now, to be precise over 20 years. Farming is what I do for life. It is what I eat, drink and use to raise my children” says Purity.

“Ukulima yangu ilikuwa ya kutamba tamba tu” translated ‘My farming was shaky’ I was forced into farming by the dwindling opportunities which rendered me jobless.” adds Purity.

Today, Purity harvests sorghum, green grams and other crops in abundance, and has begun contract farming. Last season, she harvested over 200 bags of sorghum, she is now food secure.

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