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Overlooking the Obvious: The Opportunity for Herbicides in Africa

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Publication date
11/10/2011
Number of Pages
5
Language:
English
Type of Publication:
Working Papers & Briefs
Focus Region:
Sub-Saharan Africa
Focus Topic:
Health & Diseases
Type of Risk:
Managerial & operational
Biological & environmental
Type of Risk Managment Option:
Risk coping
Commodity:
Crops
Author
Leonard Gianessi, Ashley Williams
Organization
CropLife Foundation

Twenty years ago, the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture’s Dr. I. Okezie Akobundu clarified the gap between crop yields on research farms in sub-Saharan Africa and those on smallholder farms — weeds (Akobundu 1991). Today, farmers in Africa continue to realize 70% lower yields than researchers on weeded plots. Reasons for the lag include weeding at suboptimal times and labor constraints. Most significantly, 90% of acres on large plantation farms in sub-Saharan Africa are treated with herbicides, the same percent as on all crop lands in developed countries, while only 5% of smallholder farm acres receive herbicide applications.

Leonard Gianessi and Ashley Williams of the CropLife Foundation, Washington, DC, USA argue that poorly controlled weeds are the biggest constraint to improving crop production in Africa