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    Sub­ukia farm­ers fight pests with neem leaves

    Farm­ers in Sub­ukia area of Na­k­uru are cut­ting the spread of pests by upto 40 per­cent at zero cost thanks to the freely avail­able neem leaves and seeds that have proven more po­tent that con­ven­tional pesti­cides.

    The neem has an act­ive in­gredi­ent called "aza­dir­achtin" that is found in all parts of the tree with the largest con­cen­tra­tions in the seeds that can be ex­trac­ted and used as an in­sect­icide for the con­trol of more than 400 spe­cies of in­sects.

    Ac­cord­ing to Dr. Jacinta Were a sci­ent­ist who has been in­volved in teach­ing the farm­ers, ma­jor­ity of the spe­cies af­fect­ing the farm­ers’ crops have suc­cumbed to the neem ther­apy which proves its prowess in pest con­trol.

    The leaves are poun­ded in a mor­tar and the pulp strained in water overnight for ap­plic­a­tion while the dried seeds are de­cor­tic­ated to ob­tain the ker­nel. The ker­nel is poun­ded, mixed with water and squeezed to ob­tain the oil. The leaves and the seeds can also be groun­ded into powder and used dir­ectly to dust crops in the field or to pro­tect grain.

    Ac­cord­ing to Dr. Were the major mode of ac­tion of the neem is that its prop­er­ties have been iden­ti­fied to be use­ful in ag­ri­cul­tural in­dustry be­cause they have a power­ful in­sect growth reg­u­lator. It also acts as an anti-feed­ant and as an ovi­pos­itor de­terrent and the neem does not kill the in­sects im­me­di­ately.

    The in­sects die dur­ing their de­vel­op­ment and there is re­duc­tion in the over­all pop­u­la­tion over a period time. Most in­sects ex­posed to neem would stop feed­ing shortly after ex­pos­ure there­fore end­ing the dam­age to the plant. The ap­plic­a­tion of the neem ac­cord­ing to Dr. Were also in­hib­its adult in­sects from lay­ing eggs on treated plant sur­faces and this helps to pre­vent re-in­fest­a­tion of treated crops.

    Un­like syn­thetic chem­ic­als such as en­do­sulfan, neem-based ma­ter­i­als have low en­vir­on­mental per­sist­ence between four and eight days in the field and are re­l­at­ively non-toxic to mam­mals. "Honey bees, para­sitic wasps and pred­at­ors such as spiders, ants and lady bird beetles are not harmed by neem product. The neem tree of­fers a safe al­tern­at­ive to con­ven­tional in­sect­icide in in­teg­rated pests man­age­ment pro­gramme". She said.

    The use of neem is one among many bio­lo­gical and tra­di­tional ways farm­ers are court­ing to fight pests that have de­veloped im­munity against con­ven­tional pesti­cides.  The un­pre­ced­en­ted rise in the price of pesti­cides has fur­ther pushed farm­ers to al­tern­at­ive pest con­trol meth­ods.
    From ash, cow­dung, tra­di­tional brew and ker­osene oils, the home-made con­trol meth­ods are now be­com­ing a buzz word across farm­ing com­munit­ies in Kenya.

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