‘Spraying should be the last option’: how farmers are exploring alternatives to pesticides
Election
Originally published by Kenya | The Guardian — Read the original article →
When pesticide proved no match for the insect, desperate Phyllis Nvuda tried a new way to save her infested orchard
For two decades, Phyllis Nduva, 72, has grown mangoes and citrus in Wote, a town in Kenya’s eastern Makueni County. In the beginning, she only had to worry about ordinary fruit flies. She handled them simply, buying chemical pesticides and spraying her trees whenever they appeared.
But then, in 2014, the false codling moth turned up on her farm. The small brown creature had been causing havoc in South Africa for years, and in 2007 it was spotted in Kenya.