Fodder Crop Adoption through Push-Pull Technology (PPT) for Fall Armyworm (FAW) Control in Cereals Cropping Systems

There is an urgent need to increase grain yields and animal products due to increasing human population in Africa. Push-pull technology (PPT) is a conservation agriculture intercrop technology which protects and enhances natural resources productivity and ecosystem services in mixed farming systems. The technology involves growing of a cereal crop with a repellent intercrop, Desmodium genus (silverleaf, D. uncinatum and greenleaf, D. intortum) with grass such as Pennisetum purpureum or Brachiaria spp. planted as a border around the cereal-legume intercrop. The plants accompanying the cereal crop are typically valuable high quality fodder thus integrating crop-livestock production. The PPT was initially developed in the high altitude areas which were mainly suitable for optimal growth of Desmodium sp. In contrast, Clitoria ternatea (Blue pea) is the recommended herbaceous forage legume crop for the low altitude areas. In addition, clitoria and dolichos demonstrated their ability to effectively repel stem-borer pests in push pull technology systems within the coastal lowlands. The experiments were established in four sites representing diverse coastal lowlands (CL) agro-ecological zones (CL3, CL4, and CL5). The species used in the system were: maize (cereal crop, the main target by Spodoptera pests); climate-smart brachiaria grass (as a pull crop) and blue pea (as a push crop). It was demonstrated that the push-pull technology can also control FAW and that this system be promoted for provision of high quality fodder for livestock in smallholder mixed farms

Enhancing food production in semi arid coastal lowlands Kenya through water harvesting technologies

Paper for presentation at the 27th SSEA/6th ASSS Conference held on October 20-25, 2013 in Nakuru, KenyaTo evaluate the performance of drought tolerant maize varieties under different water harvesting technologies (zai pits, tied ridges and conventional), the treatments were laid out in a split plot design with water harvesting methods as the main plots, and maize varieties as the sub-plots. Four maize varieties were evaluated under the three water harvesting technologies. Maize yields in zai pits and tied ridges treatments were significantly higher than for conventional treatment. Maize constitutes a major component of the diet in the region, with more than 70% of maize cultivated by farmers in small holder units of less than 20 hectares of land

Stock assessment of the Tigertooth croaker, Otolithes ruber (Bloch & Schneider, 1801) from the commercial prawn trawl fishery by-catch in coastal Kenya

Commercial bottom prawn trawling has been reported to generate a higher proportion of by-catch of up to 70% in Kenya. The Tigertooth croaker, Otolithes ruber is one of the species caught in large quantities as commercial by-catch and also by artisanal fishers. This has led to growing concern that the species could be at risk of over-exploitation. The purpose of this study was to carry out a stock assessment of O. ruber. Stock assessment parameters were estimated using ELEFAN with the generic algorithm as included in the R package TropFishR. The length-converted catch curve and the length-based yield per recruit model were employed. The exploitation rate (F/Z = 0.71) indicates that the stock is overfished based on the length-converted catch curve. The current fishing mortality (F = 2.3) based on the catch curve is larger than the reference level ( = 1.1) based on the yield per recruit analysis and also indicates that the stock is overfished (= 2.09). To reverse the current trend of exploitation, improved management of the stock is required, which should include further studies on other by-catch species and the generation of data to capture the whole fishery for a better estimation of stock status