Hoeing vegetable crops in Tanzania. Weed removal is essential and labor intensive.
The safety of vegetable crop production that supplies critical nutrition for people (especially women and children) and income for farmers in East Africa is threatened by a large number of mostly invasive insects, pathogens, weeds, nematodes, viruses and other pests. These pests reduce crop productivity, increase costs of production, lower incomes, and reduce access to purchased food, medical care, and education. Pest-related crop losses are escalating as food demands of growing populations drive the intensification of crop production. Moreover, climate change will increase the levels of pest damage as rainfall patterns become more erratic and temperatures rise. Current vegetable pest management practices rely mostly on pesticides, applied at high rates leading to unsafe residue levels and rapid resistance development.
In response to these problems, the East Africa Vegetable IPM Innovation Lab is building the capacity of institutions in Tanzania, Kenya, and Ethiopia to implement effective IPM research and technology transfer programs that enhance the health and environmental benefits of IPM, increase farm productivity and incomes, and inform national and regional policy.
The project aims to develop and implement locally-adapted, gender-appropriate approaches to IPM that will reduce crop and income losses due to pests, reduce environmental damage and health concerns associated with over-use of pesticides, improve crop productivity, enhance incomes and provide better nutrition.
To achieve these goals, the Innovation Lab will develop, implement, and scale up IPM technologies for vegetable crops in Feed the Future (FtF) priority areas in Tanzania, Ethiopia and Kenya. We will develop and transfer IPM strategies appropriate for each country using participatory on-farm agriculture research. We will evaluate program impacts on pesticide use, environmental benefits, farm productivity, and incomes, and to use this information to inform national and regional policy.