Helping Africa’s maize farmers to find their way out of poverty and starvation

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So what's the problem?

Maize is a staple food in many of the sub-Saharan countries of Africa and is commonly grown by poor small-scale farmers in rural areas. However, when farming subsidies were cut in African countries, farmers were no longer able to afford inputs such as chemical fertilisers and maize production suffered. This drop in production and food security meant that many rural families suffered. Some of the affected countries have been working with development partners to try and overcome this problem.

The Millennium Villages Project is aimed at developing sub-Saharan Africa one village at a time. Villages in several countries, including Tanzania, Malawi and Kenya – where many poor farmers live on less than a dollar a day – have been chosen and amongst them they represent all of sub-Saharan Africa’s agro-ecological zones. The project focuses on all aspects of development including agriculture. The poorest of the poor farmers are supplied with expensive inputs, such as fertilisers and seeds which are financed by both the Millennium Villages Project and national governments. Farmers are then entered into a scheme which allows them to repay this debt with their excess grain from the resulting bumper crop.

In Malawi, the government’s input support programme has been a great success. Seed and fertiliser have been distributed to 70% of small holder farms, as a result maize production has nearly trebled from 1.2 to 3.4 million tonnes between 2004 and 2006. In the two village communities where the Millennium Villages Project is supporting farmers, maize productivity has increased from almost zero to 6.5 tonnes per hectare, thus moving farmers from food insecure to farmers with food surpluses. Unfortunately these successes have new problems associated with them – with so much more maize being produced grain has to be stored in greater quantities for longer periods of time leaving it exposed to attack from pests.

Bad infestations of insects such as the Maize weevil and Larger grain borer have been known to cause national losses of around 40% of the weight of stored grain, and in individual households this can reach as high as 100%. Most of these insects begin attacking the mature crop in the field. New hybrids are more susceptible as the cob is not completely covered by its protective sheath. They then get transferred from the field to the grain stores when harvested. Insects are often spread from farm to farm in old grain sacks. Fungi can also cause problems when grain is stored – especially when the grain is stored before being dried properly – as some species produce a toxin that can be harmful to humans and livestock.

What is this project doing?

CABI was contracted as a consultant to the Millennium Villages Project by the Millennium Development Centre, East and Southern Africa who are managing the project in this region. CABI's role was to help solve the grain storage pest problem. Surveys and focus group discussions with farmers of the maize producing areas of three countries (Malawi, Kenya and Tanzania) were carried out in order to find out which varieties of maize are being grown, which pests are causing the most damage and what the current drying, storage and pest management practices are. CABI’s staff also met with grain storage experts, government officials and other key informants to discuss the status of storage pests, and existing strategies for overcoming the issue. Finally both short and long-term strategies to combat storage pests were drawn up.

Results so far

The surveys found that the Larger Grain Borer was the most damaging of all of the pests, and it was frequently found to be causing losses of between 30 and 60%. This was higher than the experts had expected and farmers claimed that the losses would be higher had pesticides not been used. In the Millennium Villages Project, grain from the payback scheme was often being stored in makeshift storage areas run by inexperienced people such as local school teachers.

It was found that farmers lacked adequate information on the management of maize in both the field and storage. For example, the timing and method of maize harvesting was found to be poor and many crops were being left in the fields much longer than necessary which increased their exposure to pests. Although pesticides were being used, it was apparent that both farmers and development workers needed training in their selection and proper use. The timing and dosage of pesticides was usually incorrect and in some cases out of date chemicals were being used. Also some chemicals only had a short lifespan and so became ineffective after a few months.

It was recommended that farmers should be given greater access to insecticides and trained in their proper use. Training should also include how to identify different storage pests and how best to manage them and national strategies for the reporting of the presence of pests should also be put in to place to enable a better understanding of the scale of the problem. Training should also be given in the harvesting, handling and storage of maize to minimise exposure to pests, while larger storage facilities, common to rural communities, should be fumigated each season before grain is stored. CABI also recommended that all maize mills should be encouraged to dip the maize in water before milling in order to drown storage pests. New maize storage facilities should be built so that all of the Millennium Villagers have access to them. Furthermore, to ensure that farmers use the new stores effectively the advantages of using new storage facilities over old must be conveyed.

By following these recommendations the farmers should be able to make better use of their improved yields and increase their income. The countries should also benefit at the national level with the cost of pest related damage being estimated in the region of US$150 – 300 million. It is also essential that these initial recommendations are followed up with more research to develop long-term, integrated and sustainable strategies.

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