Learning to reduce degradation on Swaziland's arable land: enhancing understandings of Striga asiatica

Abstract

Maize production in Swaziland's middleveld is being increasingly threatened by the Striga asiatica weed (also called witchweed). It parasitises the maize crop to provide itself with water and nutrients, preventing the crop from growing properly. In this paper we examine the impacts of this bio-indicator of land degradation on rural livelihoods, investigating how farmers and policy makers are responding to the problem. Our results show that farmers' ability to control weed infestations is determined by a number of environmental, social and political-economic drivers and that national policies to reduce land degradation offer little assistance. Low-technology methods employed by farmers are an important step in alleviating the problem, but farmers' understandings of why these methods work are limited and they often neglect to combine control strategies. At the local level, there is a need to support farmer-to-farmer learning and education programmes to broaden and deepen farmer knowledge about S. asiatica. At the national level a more supportive policy context is necessary that recognises weeds as an indicator of a more serious overall land degradation problem, and which uses broader criteria to determine what constitutes land degradation. Without this attention, the threat from S. asiatica could increase in both area and intensity, with profound effects on both food security and the sustainability of rural livelihoods.

Striga infestation in northern Cameroon: Magnitude, dynamics and implications for management

“…From a farmer perspective weeds are plants that emerge together with crops and that require labour to suppress them during early stages to allow the crops to perform, as the weeds cause low yield and grow better on more fertile soils. In their view, Striga is a symptom of poor soil fertility rather than a cause of low yields [22,24]. A major consequence of this differential conceptualization is that weeding, when mentioned by farmers, is likely interpreted by scientists as Striga management.…”

Implementing the UNCCD: Participatory challenges

“…However, the majority of community members involved in the research expressed little or no concern for the declining quality of rangeland areas, and was much more concerned about land degradation occurring in arable areas. Case study communities considered poor soils and weeds (particularly infestations of Striga asiatica , which has profound, deleterious impacts on maize production and livelihood sustainability) to be the main environmental obstacles to successful agricultural production, yet these receive no mention in the NAP (Stringer et al , 2007a).…”

From global politics to local land users: applying the United Nations Convention to combat desertification in Swaziland

“…Overall, the parasitic weed Striga asiatica emerged as the most important constraint to impact upon rural livelihoods (see Stringer et al . forthcoming), and transect walks with land users verified these concerns, as several fields infested with weeds were observed.…”

“…Land users employ a range of responses to what they consider to be unfavourable environmental changes. These include activities such as the application of fertilizer and manure (sometimes obtained through drawing on social networks of friends and family, which is particularly the case for poorer households), the digging of ditches to divert water flows, the planting of trees, the early planting of maize and the thorough weeding of the maize fields (see Stringer et al . forthcoming).…”