Most crops grown in eastern and southern Africa are highly susceptible to nematode attack. Nematodes are microscopic non-segmented roundworms that live in the soil. In Tanzania, they are estimated to cause yield losses of over 20% in a range of crops, while losses in vegetable crops in Zimbabwe reached over 50%. Vegetables are important food and cash crops for many rural people and significant yield losses affect both food security and cash income.
Nematode pests are normally controlled by crop rotation and application of chemical nematicides. But most resource-poor farmers cannot afford nematicides and they are inappropriate for widespread use. There is therefore a need for research and development to provide alternative methods that can be adapted to local needs, but there is little local capacity in developing regions to address the problem.
In August 2003, with support from the Gatsby Charitable Trust, representatives from CABI, Rothamsted Research and the University of Reading visited eastern Africa to assess local nematology needs. They discovered an urgent need for support and decided that the best approach would be to establish a cadre of trained nematologists who would be stationed at universities and government agricultural departments.
The five-year Gatsby-funded partnership began in 2005. Seven individuals from eastern Africa were identified to be involved in the programme. They are currently undertaking nematology training and are involved in collaborative research programmes. They are also receiving sponsorship to attend academic conferences and being provided with essential equipment, such as high-quality research microscopes. The plan is for them to become full-time nematologists who will disseminate their knowledge further by training others and sharing the results of their research.
Training is progressing well and laboratories in Kenya, Uganda and Zimbabwe have received microscopes and other equipment. The initial training course was held in Kenya in 2005 and the group is continuing to interact. “They have formed their own group, the Nematology Initiative for Eastern and Southern Africa (NIESA) and they are actively pushing forward the project in order to meet the requirements of African nematology”, reports CABI’s representative in the partnership, Dr David Hunt.
CABI has been commissioned to develop a communal nematology website for NIESA which will provide access to up-to-date information and resources on nematology, facilitate exchange of information between the members of the core group and raise the public profile of nematology. Through providing strong scientific nematology capacity, the project has high hopes that individual countries will be able to deal with local nematode problems more effectively in the future.