Pest Management Strategies in Traditional Agriculture: An African Perspective

▪ Abstract African agriculture is largely traditional—characterized by a large number of smallholdings of no more than one ha per household. Crop production takes place under extremely variable agro-ecological conditions, with annual rainfall ranging from 250 to 750 mm in the Sahel in the northwest and in the semi-arid east and south, to 1500 to 4000 mm in the forest zones in the central west. Farmers often select well-adapted, stable crop varieties, and cropping systems are such that two or more crops are grown in the same field at the same time. These diverse traditional systems enhance natural enemy abundance and generally keep pest numbers at low levels. Pest management practice in traditional agriculture is a built-in process in the overall crop production system rather than a separate well-defined activity. Increased population pressure and the resulting demand for increased crop production in Africa have necessitated agricultural expansion with the concomitant decline in the overall biodiversity. I...