StopStriga and Gro-Plus Seed priming and bio-pesticides
Objectives

• To promote methods that minimise crop losses due to Striga by enabling small-scale farmers to prime (soak with added nutrients) their own seeds and then treat them with a proven mycoherbicide
• To have 48,000 households using the technology by April 2011

The project will take place in Nyanza Province where the population in 1999 was 4.4 million comprising 968,014 households (Ministry of Agriculture, 2004). The estimate is that around 480,000 households are cereal-producers. The conservative target for the technology’s take-up is 10% of these households, i.e. 48,000 households.

In response to slower than anticipated progress on registration of their StopStriga products (which combines seed priming and application of a bio-pesticide to control Striga), Real IPM have developed a new product based only on the seed priming technology. This product faces far fewer regulatory hurdles and can therefore be introduced to the market with the minimum of delay.

So now, in September 2010, Real IPM is promoting Gro-Plus - small bags of fertiliser which is dissolved in water and used to soak seeds (seed priming) before sowing.

StopStriga consists of a two-stage treatment: first, seed priming to boost the seeds, then application of a seed coating bio-pesticide to combat the parasitic weed Striga. StopStriga is currently proceeding slowly through the stringent registration requirements of the Pest Control Product Board of Kenya. Introduction of the Gro-Plus product is a creative response to this bottleneck which will also pave the way for the eventual introduction of StopStriga: farmers will already be used to the concept of pre-treating seeds before sowing.

Real IPM hs collaborated with fellow Best Bet FIPS-Africa to promote the Gro-Plus product.

The development of the seed priming technology was part of the research and technology legacy from the DFID-funded RNRRS

Highlights to date

• Filming of Henry Wainwright, the Director of Real IPM, demonstrating how the technology is to be used and a report from the field on how Striga affects small-scale farmers
• The initial stages for setting up the mobile phone and GIS initial stages for setting up the mobile phone and GIS technology system have been completed
• Development of the first batch of the seeds to be primed with phosphate fertiliser, part of the process of strengthening the seed has been undertaken and fifty farmers have been identified and will plant primed seed in March
• Trials on StopStriga, the fungal product to controls Striga, are currently being conducted at KARI (Kibos Station) supervised by the Pest Control Products Board and Kenya Plant Health Inspectorate Services
• Training content and materials are being prepared and regional training centres in Nyanza province have been identified.

Gro-Plus highlights

• Setting up an SMS alert system which sends information directly to registered farmers.
• Records have been kept of which farmers received Gro-Plus so that an impact assessment of this technology can be undertaken
• In September (to coincide with the short rains) over 2,500 priming packs of Gro-Plus were distributed to farmers in Siaya District in Nyanza Province