Coping strategies employed by farmers against the larger grain ...

More documents

Recommendations

Info

Proceedings of the 7 th International Working Conference on Stored-product Protection. - Yohcme 2 harvest that farmers have maize in storage on farm. Looking across all regions, Figure 7b shows that farmers exhaust stocks of maize between 8 and 10 months after harvest in a non-drought year. In a drought year this reduces to between 5 and 6 months. < 10~"k r- 90% I eos, r E '" 00 10% i 50% ;0% I 40% ~ ;0% t: " :20% I I "'ill 0% , ~ < ~~ Fig. 6. 35% 30% Ul 25% (ij E ~ 20% a ill Ol rn C ill 0 (ij CL 15% 10% -~~~I--I , I I I ~ ~ l " :r , ~ ~ ~ I Reasons for changes in the varieties of maize cultivated at present compared with 15 years ago. 5% . U.~l l 12 ,-----------_---j Normal years 10 Drought years! Figure 8 shows that at least 50% of farmers stated that there had been no change in the duration of maize storage in comparison with 15 years ago. In Arusha and Iringa , 80 % of farmers stated 'no change' , in Kilimanjaro , 65 %,and in Morogoro, Rukwa and Tabora around 50 %. In Morogoro and Rukwa, 30 - 40% of farmers stated that there had been a decrease due to non- LGB reasons (most commonly a reduction in production). It was only really in Tabora and Kilimanjaro that a significant minority of farmers attempted to avoid the effects of P. truneatvs by reducing storage and so curtailing the potential period of exposure of maize to the pest: 25% of farmers in Tabora and 15% of farmers in Kilimanjaro had taken such action. Unsurprisingly, in these two regions also some farmers had increased the quantity of maize sold due to P. truncatus, (Figure 9). Lower percentages of farmers in other regions had also taken this action (less than 10% in other regions). ~ n~i Normal years o Drought years 0% - .J1 -,._.-.....,_.-=-_.,--_ ....---r-.- ____ IJ 0 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 22 24 34 36 Duration of storage (months) Fig.7a. Duration of maize storage: aggregate for the 6 regions. o Fig.7b. Arusha Iringa Kilimanjaro Morogoro Rukwa Tabora Average duration of storage (with SEM) by regions. 1777 Summary In all the villages surveyed, P. truncatus has had no real impact on maize production outcomes at farm level. Impact on storage and marketing outcomes has been more evident, but even here behavioural change has been restricted to a minority of farmers in two regions, Tabora and Kilimanjaro. Taking all regions together, then, hypotheses (a), (b) and (c) are unsuppcrted by the survey evidence. This poses the question: do farmers actually regard the pest as a major problem, and if so, are they able to deal with if I (hypothesis (d». I I -·1
60% 50% Proceedirup: of the 7 th Iniematumol Working Conference on Stored-product Protection - Volume 2 Arusha ------------------------ a , :2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 11 1S 22 24 34 36 60%~ r·-··-·--~-··-·-,·,·- 50% 40% 30% Iringa 20% ] 10% 0% n non n JlJ] illl ~~.ou. -----J o , 2 3 4 5 6 7 B 9 1011 12 13 14 15 16 17 18222434 36 Kilimandjaro 60% r---------...:..------------, 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0% o 1 :2 3 4 5 6 7 S 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 15 17 18 22 24 J.4 J6 Fig.7c. Frequencies by regions. .. i r I " i DNQQ"""ge Fig. 8. Reasons for the changes in the duration of maize storage at present in comparisonwith 15 years ago. I .Un.l>.t.o -- I t;lD.c",",e,'''''>onun.l>'''' Morogoro 60% ----- I 50% I 40% 30% I 20% 10% 0% 60% I 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0% U~~~ ~ o , :2 3 4 567 B 9 1011 1213 14 15 16 17 18222434 36 Rukwa fuJWJkl~J o 1 :2 3 4 5 6 7 8 s 10 11 12 13 14 ,5 16 17 18 22 24 ~4 36 Tabora 60% .r--------------------~ 50% 40% . 30% - 20'% o 1 :2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 22 24 34 36 Is P. truncatus still regarded as a problem? Maize producers still regard insects, particularly P. truncaius , as being the main storage problem. Figure 10 illustrates the list of storage problems mentioned during the survey and the mean ranking given by farmers. A similar ranking was produced for maize intended for sale. When the first four most important problems are considered, LGB, other Insects, rodents and mould, it becomes clear just how P_truncatus dominates concern (Figure 11). Coping strategies for P. truncatus ONe""""9" ;; j ~ ~ 1 Farmers have been willing to use insect-susceptible varieties of maize because they are aware that insect problems in store can be alleviated by the application of insecticide, particularly Actellic Super Dust (ASD). Most Fig. 9. e 3 ~ , ~ ~ x Changes in" the quantity of maize sold at present comparedwith 15 years ago. farmers believed ASD was effective against P _ truncatw; and other storage insect pests (Figure 12) _ Less than 5% of farmers who used this insecticide were not satisfied with the results obtained except in Kilimanjaro where 20% were dissatisfied. In this region, there were many batches of the 1778 0 I I
Page 1 and 2: Proceedmqs of the 7 th Internationa
Page 3 and 4: Proceedings of the 7 th Internation
Page 5: - ~ as ..s ~ 30 Co ~ ee 25 .0 ~ 20
Page 9 and 10: 100 '0 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 Proc

Coping strategies employed by farmers against the larger grain ...

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?