Kenyan farmers eagerly adopt Ua Kayongo (meaning “kill Striga ”) as the best way to control the costly parasitic weed

Farmers in western Kenya overwhelmingly favor planting a new maize seed that kills Striga , a highly invasive parasitic weed that infests 200,000 hectares of Kenyan farmland and causes crop losses worth an estimated US$50 million each year. Seed of a maize variety that tolerates imidazolinone are coated with a low dose of this herbicide, which kills Striga without damaging the crop. This was a key finding of a recent independent study commissioned by the African Agricultural Technology Foundation. In the study by the Western Regional Alliance for Technology Evaluation, which includes nongovernmental organizations, farmer associations and extension workers, nearly 5,300 farmers in 17 districts of western Kenya evaluated eight recommended Striga management practices.

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