Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-dnltx Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-20T00:48:08.332Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Pest and Disease Hazards and Sustainability in African Agriculture

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 October 2008

Abe Goldman
Affiliation:
Department of Geography, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611–7315, USA

Summary

Surveys of the relationship between pests and diseases and crop sustainability in several areas of Kenya, Nigeria, and other regions of Africa indicate that the production of numerous crops has declined sharply as a result of major pest and disease outbreaks, and others are threatened with major decline because of a surge in virulence of an endemic pest or disease, the introduction of a virulent exotic pest or pathogen, or because a system of control used previously has collapsed. Many of the crops that have declined were already experiencing reduced economic demand. In other cases, crop sustainability has been preserved by vigorous farmer responses or by the intervention of national and international research institutions. Most pests and pathogens, however, remain within tolerable bounds most of the time, though this often requires the use of chemical or cultural controls, or the availability of adequate land to compensate for losses. As land availability declines, more strenuous management efforts may be needed to sustain productivity.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1996

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Altieri, Miguel (1987). Agroecology: The Scientific Basis of Alternative Agriculture. Boulder, Colorado: Westview.Google Scholar
Caveness, F. E., Hahn, S. K., Alvarez, M. N. & Ng, Y. (1987). The cocoyam improvement program at IITA, 1973 to 1987. In Cocoyams in Nigeria: Production, Storage, Processing and Utilization, 5257 (Eds Arene, O. B. et al. ). Umudike, Nigeria: National Root Crops Research Institute.Google Scholar
De Pury, J. M. S. (1968). Crop Pests of East Africa. Nairobi: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Doggett, Hugh (1982). The history of sorghum improvement in East Africa. In Sorghum Improvement in Eastern Africa. Proceedings of the Regional Workshop on Sorghum Improvement in Eastern Africa, 17–21 October 1982. Nazreth, Ethiopia: Addis Ababa University; Nairobi: IDRC.Google Scholar
FAO (various years). Production Yearbook. Rome: Food and Agriculture Organization.Google Scholar
FAO (various years). Trade Yearbook. Rome: Food and Agriculture Organization.Google Scholar
Ford, John (1971). The Role of the Trypanosomiases in African Ecology: a Study of the Tsetse Fly Problem. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Giblin, James (1990). Trypanosomiasis control in African history: an evaded issue? Journal of African History 31:5980.Google Scholar
Goldman, Abe (1986). Pest Hazards and Pest Management by Small Scale Farmers in Kenya. PhD Dissertation, Clark University, Worcester, Massachusetts.Google Scholar
Goldman, Abe (1991). Tradition and change in postharvest pest management in Kenya. Agriculture and Human Values 8:99113.Google Scholar
Goldman, Abe (1993 a). Agricultural innovation in three areas of Kenya: neo-Boserupian theories and regional characterization. Economic Geography 69:4471.Google Scholar
Goldman, Abe (1993 b). Population growth and agricultural change in Imo State, southeastern Nigeria. In Population Growth and Agricultural Change in Africa, 250301 (Eds Turner, B. L. II, Robert, Kates and Goran, Hyden). Gainesville, Florida: University of Florida Press.Google Scholar
Goldman, Abe and Smith, , Joyotee, (1995). Agricultural transformations in India and northern Nigeria: exploring the nature of green revolutions. World Development 23:243263.Google Scholar
Hansen, Art (1994). The illusion of local sustainability and self sufficiency: famine in a border area of northwestern Zambia. Human Organization 53:1120.Google Scholar
Hussey, N. W. (1990). Agricultural production in the Third World: a challenge for natural pest control. Experimental Agriculture 26:171183.Google Scholar
IITA (1992). Sustainable Food Production in Sub-Saharan Africa: IITA's Contributions. Ibadan, Nigeria: IITA.Google Scholar
Kenmore, P. E., Litsinger, J. A., Bandong, J. P., Santiago, A. C. & Salac, M. M. (1987). Philippine rice farmers and insecticides: thirty years of growing dependency and new options for change. In Management of Pests and Pesticides: Farmers' Perceptions and Practices, 98108 (Eds Joyce, Tait and Banpot, Napompeth). Boulder, Colorado: Westview.Google Scholar
Kenyan Ministry of Economic Planning and Development (1981). Kenya Population Census, 1979. Vol. 1. Nairobi: Government Printers.Google Scholar
Kenya Colony (1958). Machakos District Gazeteer. Nairobi: Ministry of Agriculture.Google Scholar
Lal, Rattan (1988). Soil degradation and the future of agriculture in sub-Saharan Africa. Journal of Soil and Water Conservation 43:444451.Google Scholar
Luna, John & House, Garfield (1990). Pest management in sustainable agricultural systems. In Sustainable Agricultural Systems, 157173 (Eds Clive, Edwards, Rattan, Lal, Patrick, Madden, Robert, Miller and Gar, House). Ankey, Iowa: Soil and Water Conservation Society.Google Scholar
McMillan, Della (1995). Sahel Visions: Planned Settlement and River Blindness Control in Burkina Faso. Tucson and London: University of Arizona Press.Google Scholar
Misari, S. M., Abraham, J. M., Demski, J. W., Ansa, O. A., Kuhn, C. W., Caspar, R. & Breyel, E. (1988). Aphid transmission of the viruses causing chlorotic rosette and green rosette disease of peanut in Nigeria. Plant Disease 72:250253.Google Scholar
Murega, T. N. & Khaemba, B. M. (1985). Evaluation of some chemicals for efficacy against the red spider mites, Tetranychus sp (Acarina: Tetranychidae) attacking cotton in Eastern Kenya. Insect Science and its Application 6:1115.Google Scholar
National Research Council (1991). Toward Sustainability. Washington, DC: National Academy Press.Google Scholar
Neuenschwander, P., Hammond, W. N. O., Guttierez, A. P., Cudjoe, A. R. & Baumgartner, J. U. (1989). Impact assessment of the biological control of the cassava mealybug, Phenacoccus manihoti Matilc-Ferrero (Hemiptera: Pseudococcidae), by the introduced parasitoid, Epidinocarsis lopezi (De Santis) (Hymenoptera: Encyrtidae). Bulletin of Entomological Research 79:579594.Google Scholar
Norgaard, Richard. 1988. The biological control of cassava mealybug in Africa. American Journal of Agricultural Economics 70:366371.Google Scholar
Page, Sam & Bridge, John (1993). Plant nematodes and sustainability in tropical agriculture. Experimental Agriculture 29:139154.Google Scholar
Pankhurst, Richard & Johnson, Douglas H. (1988). The great drought and famine of 1888–92 in northeast Africa. In The Ecology of Survival: Case Studies from Northeast African History, 4770 (Eds Douglas, Johnson and David, Anderson). London: Lester Crook; Boulder: Westview.Google Scholar
Porter, Philip (1979). Food and Development in the Semi-Arid Zone of East Africa. Foreign and Comparative Studies; African Series No. 32. Syracuse, NY: Maxwell School, Syracuse University.Google Scholar
Reganold, John, Papendick, Robert & Parr, James (1990). Sustainable agriculture. Scientific American. June 1990, 112120.Google Scholar
Théberge, Robert L. (ed.) (1985). Common African Pests and Diseases of Cassava, Yam, Sweet Potato and Cocoyam. Ibadan, Nigeria: IITA.Google Scholar
Vuylsteke, D., Ortiz, R. & Swennen, R. (1994). Breeding plantain hybrids for resistance to black sigatoka. IITA Research 8:914.Google Scholar
Walker, P. T. & Hodson, M. J. (1976). Developments in maize stem-borer control in East Africa, including the use of insecticide granules. Proceedings of the Association of Applied Biologists 84:111114.Google Scholar
Waller, Richard (1988). Emutai: crisis and response in Maasailand, 1883–1902. In The Ecology of Survival: Case Studies from Northeast African History, 73112 (Eds Douglas, Johnson and David, Anderson). London: Lester Crook; Boulder: Westview.Google Scholar
Yaninek, J. S., Onzo, A. & Ojo, J. B. (1994). Continent-wide releases of neotropical phytoseiids against the exotic cassava green mite in Africa. IITA Research 8:1419.Google Scholar
Yayock, J. Y., Rossel, H. W. & Harkness, C. (1976). A Review of the 1975 Groundnut Rosette Epidemic in Nigeria. Samaru Conference Paper No. 9.Zaria, Nigeria:Institute for Agricultural Research, Ahmadu Bello University.Google Scholar