There is simply one thing known as push-pull technology that is way more beneficial than using pesticide. This is intercropping maize with desmodium and surrounding the maize field with napier or brachiaria grass both used as fodder for livestock.
Editor,
RE: "Pesticide use killing bees, threatening food security” (The New Times, November 12).
There is simply one thing known as push-pull technology (http://www.push-pull.net/) that is way more beneficial than using pesticide. This is intercropping maize with desmodium and surrounding the maize field with napier or brachiaria grass both used as fodder for livestock.
Desmodium repels the moth (that lays armyworm eggs) from maize; the moth is attracted by the napier/brachiaria and will lay eggs there. But, these two plants, the chemicals produced by these plants not only trap the egg but will even destroy them before the hatch.
I believe the future lies in push-pull technology that in using disastrous pesticides.
Needless to emphasize that desmodium is also a valuable fodder for our livestock but also is one of the best nitrogen fixing plant that will enrich the soil and keep it moist.
Celestin Karamira