Low yields of coffee in Uganda are due to a number of factors with insects, diseases and weeds being paramount. In response, farmers respond by applying all kinds of pesticides to control these stresses. A questionnaire to elucidate farmers' knowledge and perceptions of pesticide use was therefore administered to 325 randomly selected respondents in the Arabica coffee growing regions of Uganda. Our results showed that only 23% of the respondents had ever used or were using pesticides, although, >50% of these respondents had knowledge on pesticides use. However, the methods of pesticide disposal were poor with >40% of these respondents disposing the wash water and unused/waste pesticide on their farms whereas, used containers were being burned. Also, >60% of these respondents were re-entering their coffee fields in less than one week after spraying. These practices expose the farmers, their animals and the environment to pesticide poisoning. Nevertheless, >50% of these respondents were aware of the negative effects pesticides are likely to cause to humans, animals and environment. Therefore, in order to minimize pesticide exposure and toxicity, training and awareness campaigns on pesticides use, particularly pesticide disposal should be rolled out to all the coffee growing agro-ecologies of Uganda.
Recent trends in agricultural research and development recommend incorporating farmers' knowledge and experience into the research agenda. A questionnaire was therefore administered to 10 purposively selected households per district in 7 randomly selected districts located in the coffee-banana agroforestry system of mid-eastern Uganda to determine farmers' knowledge of pests and diseases of coffee and bananas. Most of the respondents interviewed had knowledge of the pests and diseases attacking both coffee and bananas. The black coffee twig borer (BCTB) and coffee wilt disease (CWD) were the most commonly reported pests-by 46 and 72% of the respondents respectively. Farmers' knowledge of BCTB was significantly (p=0.0391) dependent on sex, but not age or education of the respondent. On the other hand, their knowledge of CWD was not dependent on age, sex nor educational level. For the bananas, the banana weevils and banana xanthomonas wilt (BXW) were the most commonly mentioned pests-by 21 and 84% of the respondents respectively. More than 50% of the respondents were employing cultural practices for managing BCTB, CWD, banana weevil, nematodes, black ants (kaasa) and BXW. However, more than 65% of the respondents had limited knowledge of managing the biting ants, mites, coffee leaf rust and red blister disease, caterpillars and black sigatoka. This therefore calls for more awareness campaign on all pests and diseases of both crops in the region.
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