Malawi IPM project 02: Implementation of cassava integrated pest and disease management Farmers Field Schools in Malawi
Project Duration: One year from (November 2003 to November 2004)
Purpose of the project: To train farmers in season-long ‘field schools’ in selected key cassava growing areas of Malawi that are food insecure and characterized by low cassava productivity to make independent decisions on crop health management through their own observation of the crop ecosystem and mitigation decisions.
Background/description: Cassava is the staple food crop to over 25% of Malawi’s 11.5 million people and is the choice food security crop at the national level. The crop is widely acclaimed for its hardiness, high adaptability to extremely diverse low-input traditional farming systems, and to a wide range of climatic conditions, and its ability to yield better than other crops under marginal soil fertility conditions. While cassava fresh root yields of at least 25 to 35 metric tones have been obtained in Malawi under improved crop management, yields from fields owned by the majority of peasant households have ranged from just a few kilogrammes to under a tone per hectare. Major exotic pests such as cassava green mite Mononychellus tanajoa (Bondar) (Acarina: Tetranychidae) and cassava mealybug Phenacoccus manihoti (Matille-Ferrero) (Homoptera: Coccoidea, Pseudococcoidae) which only appeared in Malawi within the past 20 years or so and have caused huge crop yield losses and severely impacted on productivity and quality of planting materials. Both pests were a subject of successful classical biological control drives using their respective efficient natural enemies, the phytoseiid Typhlodromalus aripo and the encryrtid endoparasitic wasp Apoanagyrus lopezi (DeSantis). Coupled with these two major pests is the widespread prevalence of cassava mosaic disease (CMD) singly responsible for root yield losses of up to 70% and also reduces the availability of good quality planting materials. Benefits from the successful management of M. tanajoa and P. manihoti combined with improved crop management and CMD control can greatly enhance the performance of an integrated pest and disease management and crop yields for the benefit of households in Malawi. The project thus intended to transform cassava farmers into cassava integrated pest management (IPM) experts who would take appropriate actions in their fields for improving crop health and productivity as well as natural enemy conservation based on their own informed analysis of the crop agroecosystem. The process intended to bring together plant protection scientists, crops department and extension services staff, non-governmental organizations (NGO) and farmers in the activity sites to a collaborative forum to plan terms of reference (TOR) and curriculum for farmers field schools and its operation and implement fully fledged farmers field schools. It further intended to empower cassava growers with the capacity of expertise in IPM to enable them observe and create solutions to constraints that limit productivity of their own cassava crop rather than expect such solutions from external sources such as government agencies.
Agro-ecological zone(s) and location(s): Lakeshore and mid-altitude areas of Malawi below 700m above sea level (asl) where cassava is an important crop.
Potential impact and beneficiaries: The exercise intended to target at least 25 farmers within each one of the respective extension planning areas (EPA) within major cassava growing districts of Karonga (Kaporo area), Rumphi (Chiweta and Mlowe areas), NkhataBay (Vizara and Tukombo areas), Nkhotakota (Kasitu and Chia areas), Mangochi (Mbwadzulu EPA) and Zomba (Dzaone EPA). Low cassava productivity, intense cassava pests and diseases pressure, and chronic food shortages characterize farming households in these areas. These situations are made extremely worse when recurrent droughts occur.
Partners: George Phiri george.phiri@iucn.org, Rashid Hanna (IITA-Benin), Misheck Chitete, Teenage Mleta and Misheck Soko (All from Department of Agricultural Research, Ministry of Agriculture and food Security, Malawi).
Development investor(s): Funds from the Government of Malawi.
Project ontact person(s)/principal investigator(s): George Phiri, george.phiri@iucn.org