Knowledge, Attitude and Practices Used in the Control of Striga in Maize by Smallholder Farmers of Western Kenya
Date
2014Author
de Nowina, Kristina Roing
Vanlauwe, Bernard
Ariga, Emmanuel Safaris
Karuku, George Njomo
Onwonga, Richard Ndemo
Nambafu, Godfrey Nakitare
Language
enMetadata
Show full item recordAbstract
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.
Key words: Attitude, knowledge, practice, striga control technologies.
Citation
Nambafu, Godfrey Nakitare, Richard Ndemo Onwonga, George Njomo Karuku, Emmanuel Safaris Ariga, Bernard Vanlauwe, and Kristina Roing de Nowina. "Knowledge, Attitude and Practices Used in the Control of Striga in Maize by Smallholder Farmers of Western Kenya."Publisher
University of Nairobi