| dc.description.abstract | The production of maize is constrained by parasitic weeds, particularly Striga. A study was carried out to document
farmers’ knowledge, attitude and practices on Striga control among smallholder farmers across three districts: Kisumu West, Busia
and Teso South of Western Kenya. A multistage sampling technique was used to select the locations and farmers to be interviewed.
A semi structured, open and closed ended questionnaire was administered leading to field experiment. Besides village meetings
(39.2%), farmers got informed on farming methods under Striga weed farms and its control technologies through neighbours (2.5%),
workshops and trainings (5.0%), field schools (3.7%), media (7.5%) and extension agents (10.8%). The attitudes of farmers towards
Striga control varied but frequently cited: long term viability of the Striga seed (12.5%), difficult to control sharing of farm tools
(10.8%), expensive technologies (13.3%), lack of adequate information (18.3%), labour intensive (15.0%), large farms for use of
push and pull technology (1.7%) and time consuming (12.5%). Framers used various Striga control practices but traditional methods
(25%) were among the most used (25%). Concerted effort involving researchers, extension agents and private sector are, therefore,
required for wide scale dissemination and adoption of the existing modern control technologies. | en_US |
