Mrs. Annette Orinyo from Alupe in Busia County has been farming for at least 5 years. In her farming experience, she grows maize, cassava, groundnuts, and vegetables and keeps cows to feed her family of five. Farming is especially difficult in Kenya, where plant insect pests, diseases, and weeds are unrelenting. Annette had severe problem of striga weed affecting her maize, causing stunted growth and low yields.

“I used to uproot the striga weeds and throw away from my farm. I also applied manure on my farm in an attempt to control striga. The challenge with these methods was that it is labour intensive and time consuming. Sometimes, the weeds re-emerge forcing you to repeat the process.”

Another pest problem was fall armyworm. Annette would start coughing, and her skin felt irritated after treating her crops with pesticides to protect them from fall armyworm. Like most farmers, Annette relied only on synthetic pesticides to control pests and diseases. Not only did she think they were making her family sick, they were so expensive costing up to Ksh.1500 per bottle, that she had little profit at the end of the season.

But it was only when she was approached by research extension officers at the Dream Team Agro Consultancy Limited Kenya, that Annette maize production improved drastically. Researchers from Dream Team Agro Consultancy, led by Dr. John Chelal, introduced Annette to the maize integrated pest management project, under the Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Current and Emerging Threats to Crops, sponsored by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). In this project, Annette and 999 other farmers – most of them women – took part in Dream Team Agro Consultancy-led IPM trainings held in 10 counties in Kenya.

Annette stated that the IPM training was “the first time I understood anything about different IPM packages applied in maize and conservation agriculture practices.”

She harvested ten bags (50kg) of maize from her ½ an acre farm where IPM packages allowed her to eliminate the use of synthetic pesticides. Annette quickly embraced IPM packages, including the use of parasitoids to control fall armyworm, resistant seeds to maize lethal necrosis disease, push-pull technology and the use of kichawi kill bio-herbicide to control striga weed.

On a recent visit, she showed off bags of harvested maize ready for market unlike the previous seasons which she harvested two bags.

She said, “Since I used kichawi kill bio-herbicide, the level of striga infestation on my farm reduced to 60%. I intent to use the bio herbicide for three more seasons to achieve 100% control. Fall armyworm did not attack my maize this season. The parasitoids used did not affect my health nor the environment.”

Now, she said, instead of spending time spraying, she spends time at the market. Her living standards have improved. In addition to saving “a lot of money” on pesticides, she feels better and does not have to be afraid to feed her crops to her children.