Climate-smart pushpull 1

Climate-smart pushpull:
resilient, adaptable conservation agriculture for the future
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Mary Otuoma, a widow who lives with her daughter-in-law and two
grandchildren in Bondo district, Kenya, farms a single acre. She is
pictured in front of her climate-smart pushpull plots with sorghum
(foreground) and maize (background). I now have enough food, says
Mary, and I have been able to buy a sheep. My poverty is alleviated.
Developing adaptable, productive agricultural systems
that are resilient to the risks and shocks associated with
long-term climate variability is essential to maintaining
food production into the future. But resilience is not
enough. Climate-smart agricultural systems also need to
protect and enhance natural resources and ecosystem
services in ways that mitigate future climate change.
Pushpull is a conservation agriculture technology
developed for smallholder mixed farming systems. The
livelihoods of 80% of the population of sub-Saharan
Africa (SSA) depend on these systems. Pushpull farmers
establish perennial stands of two fodder crops, one
between the rows of their main cereal crop and the other
around the field. The natural chemicals produced by
these companion plants effectively control stemborers
(insect pests) and parasitic weeds in the genus Striga.
When farmers adopt pushpull, as nearly 70,000 have done
since 1998, they not only achieve a dramatic and sustainable
increase in cereal yields, they also benefit from enhanced soil
fertility and obtain year-round fodder crops. This strengthens
the foundations of their farming and livelihood systems,
making them both more productive and more resilient.
Although farmers have successfully used pushpull
since it was first extended in 1998, in recent years they
began reporting that the companion plants could not
always withstand the long seasonal dry spells that were
becoming more frequent. Through new research in 2011,
this led to the development of a climate-smart pushpull,
which includes two new drought-tolerant companion plants.
Building on the already formidable pest management
and soil improvement characteristics of the technology,
climate-smart pushpull can be extended to dryer agro-
ecosystems and applied to a wider range of cereal crops.
2 Climate-smart pushpull Climate-smart pushpull 3
In Lambwe Valley, Mbita district, Kenya, this maize crop has failed due
to a long dry spell, and the farmer has released his livestock into the
field to graze the plants.
Africas persistent poverty
Africa faces particular problems in feeding its population
and it is the only continent in which per capita food
production has been declining over the past two
decades. In SSA, land degradation, pests and weeds
hamper the efficient production of cereals, particularly
maize, the main staple and cash crop. Low and declining
yields are affecting food security, nutrition and incomes,
trapping farmers in poverty and poor health. The
resource-constrained smallholder farmers living in the
arid and semi-arid regions who practice mixed crop
livestock production are particularly badly affected.
In addition to widespread poverty, population pressure
on the land is high in many areas. In many parts of the
region, smallholdings commonly amount to just one
hectare or less. Soils are severely degraded and have low
organic matter as a result of continuous monocropping,
lack of investment in soil improvement and the removal
of crop residues for livestock fodder. Most fields are
heavily infested with parasitic striga weeds, while insect
pests principally stemborers devastate cereal crops,
commonly causing over half the potential harvest to be lost.
Many families remain trapped in a cycle of diminishing
yields and deepening poverty. Food insecurity is already
common, with a critical shortage of cereals in almost
70% of rural households. This is the backdrop to the
challenge of intensifying agriculture sustainably to meet
the extra demand for food from a growing population.
There is an urgent need for a significant and sustainable
increase in grain yields and animal production. In
particular, sustainability requires ecologically sound ways
of managing weeds and pests, and a strong focus on
maintaining and conserving soil, crop and water resources.
and the compounding effects of
climate change
Climate change is anticipated to have far-reaching effects
in Africa, threatening many of the advances made through
efforts to achieve the Millennium Development Goals
by 2015. Ensuring the continuity and sustainability of
development in the context of climate change will be at the
centre of post-2015 international development agendas.
Studies to predict the effects of climate change
suggest that, by 2025, growing-season average
temperatures will be warmer than those of 19602002
for four years in ten for the majority of Africas maize-
growing areas. This is projected to reach nearly nine
years in ten by 2050, and nearly ten by 2075.
Climate models also suggest that rainfall will become
progressively more unpredictable, with a decline in yearly
totals and increasing incidence of floods and droughts.
These climate trends are likely to lead to worsening
land degradation and pest and weed pressure, with crop
failure occurring more often, exacerbating food insecurity.
To adapt to these adverse conditions, many resource-
constrained smallholder farmers will need to modify their
farming systems to incorporate cereal crops with greater
drought resistance, such as sorghum and millet, and to
replace cattle with small ruminants for dairy production.
Pushpull: a broad-based solution
Pushpull has already proven its success as a conservation
agriculture technology that simultaneously addresses
many of the constraints faced by smallholder farmers,
dealing effectively with pests and weeds, increasing
the productivity of crops and livestock, and supporting
several important agro-ecosystem functions.
The new climate-smart adaptation of the push
pull technology has unrivalled potential to continue
to address these problems at the same time as
equipping farmers with the increased resilience and
adaptability they need to deal with the additional
problems associated with climate change.
What is climate-smart pushpull?
Developed by icipe and its partners, pushpull is a novel
conservation agriculture technology designed to integrate
pest, weed and soil management in cereal-based farming
systems. It involves driving cereal stemborers away from the
crop by using a repellent intercrop plant, desmodium (the
push), while at the same time attracting stemborers with a
border crop of native grass trap plants (the pull). Chemicals
released by the desmodium roots also result in very
effective control of the troublesome parasitic weed striga.
As well as controlling stemborers and striga, the push
pull companion plants provide high-value animal fodder,
which farmers can sell or feed to stall-fed dairy cows and
other livestock. The companion plants also increase soil
fertility, prevent soil erosion and conserve soil moisture.
2 Climate-smart pushpull Climate-smart pushpull 3
How does pushpull work?
Conventional pushpull was developed in 1997 and introduced
to farmers in 1998. It uses silverleaf desmodium (Desmodium
uncinatum) and Napier grass (Pennisetum purpureum).
Climate-smart pushpull was developed in 2011 and
introduced to farmers in 2012. It uses two drought-tolerant
species: greenleaf desmodium (Desmodium intortum) and
Brachiaria grass (Brachiaria cv mulato II).
See www.push-pull.net for more information.
The parasitic weed Striga hermonthica does not make its own
nutrients, instead drawing its nourishment from the cereal roots.
Pushpull prevents stemborers attacking cereals by
intercropping with a push plant, such as desmodium, and
planting around this intercrop a border of a stemborer-
attractive pull plant, such as Napier grass or Brachiaria grass.
In addition to repelling or pushing the stemborers away from
the crop, desmodium suppresses the parasitic weed, striga.
It stimulates germination of the striga seeds, then inhibits the
growth of its roots, thereby preventing the striga attaching
itself to the host plant.
On top of dealing with stemborer and striga, the leguminous
desmodium intercrop fixes atmospheric nitrogen, adds
organic matter to the soil, conserves soil moisture and
enhances soil biodiversity, thereby improving soil health and
fertility. Additionally, it provides ground cover and, together
with the surrounding grass trap crop, protects the soil against
erosion.
Stemborer larvae feed first on the leaves of the maize plant,
before going on to bore into the stem.
The technology fits well with traditional African
mixed cropping systems. Based on locally available
plants, rather than expensive external inputs, it is
both appropriate and economical. By improving the
productivity of a wide range of crops and livestock,
it diversifies farmers income sources. Through being
equally accessible to female and male farmers, it
contributes positively to gender equity. Perhaps
most importantly, pushpull farmers commonly
report a doubling and tripling of their maize yields
and their food security is greatly increased.
Funding from the European Union has allowed
further research to adapt pushpull to predicted drier
and hotter conditions by identifying and incorporating
drought-tolerant trap and intercrop plants. This has
led to a new, climate-smart pushpull package being
extended to farmers, comprising an intercrop of greenleaf
desmodium and a border crop of Brachiaria grass. As
well as directly addressing soil fertility and productivity
constraints, climate-smart pushpull responds directly to
the rising uncertainties facing Africas rain-fed agriculture
due to the continents vulnerability to climate change.
The sorghum plot on the left is infested with the purple flowers
of striga, while the climate-smart pushpull plot on the right is
completely free from the weed.
The climate-smart pushpull demonstration plot at Mbita Point.
4 Climate-smart pushpull Climate-smart pushpull 5
Why climate-smart pushpull?
The trap plants and intercrops used in conventional
pushpull were developed to suit the current average
rainfall (>800 mm per annum) and moderate temperatures
(1530C) of Western Kenya. The rising uncertainties of
rain-fed agriculture for farmers in this region and those
in warmer, drier agro-ecosystems led icipe scientists to
begin the search for new trap plants and intercrops.
Working with Rothamsted Research, UK and national
partners in Ethiopia, Kenya and Tanzania, icipe scientists
tested a total of 500 potential grasses, identifying 21 that
were suitable for controlling stemborers. They then worked
with farmers to select the trap plant of their choice.
The grass that farmers selected, Brachiaria, controls
stemborers effectively by supporting a parasitic wasp
which feeds on their larvae. Crucially, it can also
withstand periods of up to four months with no rainfall,
and temperatures in excess of 30C. In addition,
the grass is extremely palatable to livestock.
At the same time, the team worked to identify new
species of desmodium. They needed species that
not only had the desirable characteristics of silverleaf
desmodium controlling striga, emitting volatiles to repel
stemborers, fixing nitrogen, producing high biomass
and spreading on the ground but were also drought
tolerant. Forty-three accessions of 17 species were
collected from arid regions across Africa, and greenleaf
desmodium was selected. In addition to its known ability
to control striga and stemborers, it fixes more atmospheric
nitrogen and produces more fodder than silverleaf .
Both Brachiaria and greenleaf desmodium seed
are commercially available, which meant that the new
climate-smart pushpull package could be rapidly
disseminated to farmers. Scientists have also identified
two native African desmodium species (D. ramosissimum
and D. repandum) that are even more drought tolerant
than greenleaf (D. intortum), but for which there is no
commercially available seed at present. Looking to
the future, icipe is building partnerships with farmers
and seed companies to address this constraint.
The icipe team and Rothamsted scientists are continuing
their work to more fully understand the chemistry behind
desmodiums ability to suppress striga, by isolating and
purifying the active compounds in exudates from drought-
tolerant desmodium roots. Similarly, they are examining
the full mechanism of stemborer control in Brachiaria grass.
This will ensure the future sustainability of the climate-smart
pushpull technology and allow its wider adaptation.
Partnerships in implementation
While pushpull is in many ways an elegantly simple
technology, it is based on a set of complex ecological
and chemical relationships between plants, insects
and soil. Scientists at icipe have found that push
pull works best in practice when farmers understand
clearly how it works. This has made disseminating
pushpull a knowledge-intensive process, with a strong
emphasis placed on building farmers capacities.
District-based icipe field workers usually deliver
training by working with farmer groups established
for mutual support and self-help, but also often visit
individual farmers to oversee the establishment of
pushpull plots. They also train farmer teachers, many of
whom have now become experienced peer educators.
A hallmark of the successful spread of pushpull has
been icipes capacity to identify and work in harmony
with the many groups and organizations it meets in the
field. Exploiting synergies with other active research and
development organizations has created new channels
for spreading pushpull. Particularly important is icipes
Testing potential pushpull border crop grasses for drought
tolerance at icipes Thomas Odihambo Campus, Mbita Point, Kenya.
Desmodium ramosissimum, shown here controlling striga in a
plot of sorghum, is highly drought tolerant, but seeds are not yet
commercially available.
4 Climate-smart pushpull Climate-smart pushpull 5
partnership with Heifer International, a non-governmental
organization (NGO) whose livestock-focused work
has proved to be a good fit with the technology, and
which is now the formal implementing partner for
climate-smart pushpull in Kenya and Tanzania.
By June 2013, the efforts of all partners meant that more
than 10,000 smallholder farmers living in the drier parts of
Ethiopia, Kenya and Tanzania had taken up climate-smart
pushpull. According to Dr Charles Midega, Senior Scientist
in the pushpull programme, more than 50,000 farmers will
be planting climate-smart pushpull by the end of 2014.
Spreading benefits, increasing impact
Conventional pushpull, usually practiced with maize,
has already had significant impacts on food security,
human and animal health, soil fertility, income generation,
the empowerment of women and the conservation
of agro-biodiversity. Climate-smart pushpull is
spreading these benefits more widely, to additional
crops and regions with different agro-ecosystems.
These farmers are members of a Heifer International group in
Kenyas Rachuonyo district, and have planted a climate-smart
pushpull plot with sorghum.
Eunice Omondi, who lives in Kenyas Siaya district, added a
climate-smart pushpull plot to her farm in 2012, and reports a
six-fold increase in her maize yield. As well as being a farmer,
Eunice is also a community health worker. When she goes from
door to door in the villages, she explains the connection between
diet and health and talks about pushpull as a way of getting
more food. As she says, having enough food helps in healing.
Dr Zeyaur Khan, Principal Scientist and Leader of
the pushpull programme at icipe, says the new trap
plants and intercrops of climate-smart pushpull have
met farmers and scientists expectations. Yields of maize
and sorghum have increased significantly, sometimes as
much as five-fold when compared with control plots.
The chart below presents yield data for the 2012 long
rainy season for 60 climate-smart pushpull adopters, half
growing maize and half growing sorghum. Their push
pull yields are compared with control plots of the same
crops, grown without companion or intercrop plants.
As well as increasing cereal yields, the new companion
plants have provided ample, good-quality livestock
fodder, producing enough to allow farmers to make hay
for the dry season. For most dairy livestock cattle and
goats, improved and local breeds a diet of pushpull
fodder results in more milk. In all, through the range of
benefits it provides, the system gives high economic
returns to the farmer and results in a range of positive
impacts on the livelihoods of farm households.
Yield
(kg/ha)
Maize Sorghum
Adapted
pushpull
Control Control Adapted
pushpull
4000
3000
2000
1000
0
Yield data for 2012 long rains, 60 pushpull farmers
6 Climate-smart pushpull Climate-smart pushpull 7
Improving food security and health
On-farm research confirms that, thanks to the rapid action
of the greenleaf desmodium in dealing with striga, yield
increases from climate-smart pushpull routinely result in
cereal harvests doubling over the course of a single season.
According to Jimmy Pittchar, Social Scientist in the
pushpull programme, having enough grain to meet
household needs from one season to the next is the most
common local definition of food security in this region.
Most pushpull farmers report that since adopting the
technology, they are now mainly food-secure. On-farm
results from three seasons have shown that the yield
gains that underpin this increased food security can be
maintained over time, thanks to the combined effect of
eliminating pests and weeds and improving soil fertility.
In many cases, pushpull farmers say that the diet and
therefore the health of their families have improved since
adopting the technology, particularly through drinking more
milk. Dietary diversity has also increased, with many farmers
reporting that they are in a better position to purchase
foods that they are not able to produce for themselves.
Providing nutritious fodder
Livestock fulfil many purposes in the livelihood
systems of farming households. They provide milk,
meat, manure and draught power. Well-fed, healthy
animals play an important part in maintaining soil
fertility, providing dietary protein for farm households,
and generating income to pay for school fees.
Pushpull farmers use their fodder crops to feed
goats, sheep, cattle, pigs, poultry and even rabbits.
Many farmers report positive changes in the health and
productivity of their animals, particularly thanks to the
nutritional qualities of desmodium. Because it is rich in
protein, desmodium fodder frequently doubles or even
triples existing milk yields. Widespread reports from
adopting farmers suggest that the greenleaf desmodium
of climate-smart pushpull appears to have an even
more positive impact than silverleaf desmodium.
Generating income
There are a number of ways that pushpull generates cash
income, including the sale of cereals, milk and fodder.
Within the household, this increased income is most often
spent on school fees, but also used for improvements to
housing and investment in livelihood diversification.
But there are also many examples of income being
used to strengthen the social safety nets that protect
vulnerable community members, particularly those
affected by HIV/AIDS. These include the construction of
a primary school for orphans using profits from climate-
smart pushpull surplus, and the inclusion of pushpull in
the portfolios of income-generating activities conducted
by many self-help groups in Kenya and Tanzania.
Miriam Sureri in Kuria district, Kenya, planted her first pushpull plot
in 2010, and more than doubled the original area with a climate-
smart plot in 2012. Before adopting pushpull, she got two litres of
milk a day from her local breed cows. With silverleaf desmodium and
Napier grass, this went up to three litres, but with fodder from her
climate-smart plot, her yield doubled to six. Two litres a day are kept
for Miriams eight children, and the rest is sold to pay school fees.
Most of the members of the St. Marys Womens Group in Kenyas Suba
district are widows. They planted a communal climate-smart pushpull
plot in 2012, using the fodder to feed the dairy goats they received after
working with the Italian NGO, European Committee for Agriculture and
Training (CEFA). They aim to save enough money from milk sales to
fence their pushpull plot and so protect it from free-grazing livestock.
6 Climate-smart pushpull Climate-smart pushpull 7
Evelyn Otunges husband died in 2003, and since then she has
been raising their six children alone. She adopted pushpull in 2008
and planted a climate-smart plot with sorghum in 2012. I used
to work alone on a big portion of land, for very little produce,
she says. But now I work a small area. It takes less labour, and
produces more income.
Promoting gender equity
Once established, pushpull reduces the drudgery
of digging and weeding, tasks most often performed
by women, freeing up their time and labour for
more productive tasks like selling milk or starting a
poultry enterprise. Diversified farm income means
there is more money available to buy medicines,
household goods and other essentials. Feeding
dairy cattle in stalls also frees women and children
from the task of herding cattle to graze.
Samuel Ongou had been cultivating a conventional pushpull
plot for two years before he added a new climate-smart plot in
2012. He grows bananas, sweet potatoes and vegetables as well
as maize and sorghum, and he feeds goats, cattle and poultry with
pushpull fodder crops. In the long rainy season of 2013, the area
of Rachuonyo district where Samuel lives experienced heavy rain
at the onset followed by a long dry period, which finally ended
with a hailstorm. Given these unfavourable climate events, Samuel
was not expecting much cereal to be harvested this season. But he
was nonetheless confident that the diverse enterprises on his farm,
which all rely directly or indirectly on his pushpull fodder, were
resilient enough to see his family through this lean season.
More stable and resilient agro-ecosystems
As far as possible, climate-resilient agro-ecosystems
maintain the functions and services provided by natural
systems. This means integrating instead of segregating,
closing water and nutrient cycles, increasing biological
and genetic diversity, and regenerating instead of
degrading bio-resources. Pushpull technology contributes
to stable and climate-resilient agro-ecosystems by
providing farmers with a tool for on-farm diversification
that is in line with these underlying principles.
Farmers have for many years habitually diversified
the crops they plant as an insurance strategy against
climate uncertainty. Pushpull reinforces this strategy,
because it can be equally useful when applied to maize,
sorghum, millet and rice. Furthermore, having both
conventional and climate-smart variants widens the range
of planting material that farmers can use to tailor their
cereal cropping practices to local climatic conditions.
His Excellency Lodewijk Brit, Head of the European Union
Delegation to Kenya, chats with Robert Atienga, a farmer teacher
in Siaya district, during his visit in July 2013.
Looking ahead
One of pushpulls strengths is the way the programme
has been managed as a learning process. Because farmer
participation is built in to research and dissemination,
contextual changes encountered in the field can be
communicated, discussed and responded to. Achieving
this level of reflexivity to contextual change is a vital aspect
of the climate-smart qualities of pushpull, and is thanks in
no small part to the flexible approaches of the many donor
organizations that have funded its development and spread.
Both the technology and its model for dissemination
represent a substantial resource for the future.
The development of climate-smart pushpull has
made it possible for the technology to travel to new areas
with lower rainfall, and to increase the potential number
of farmers who might find it a useful and profitable
addition to their livelihood strategies. In addition to the
work that has begun to extend climate-smart pushpull
Dr Zeyaur Khan, Principal Scientist and Leader of the pushpull programme at icipe, and Remjius Bwana, a farmer, inspect a climate-smart
pushpull field planted with sorghum on Remjius farm in Kisumu West district, Kenya. A close relationship between farmers and scientists
is at the heart of pushpulls success, and is essential to its future adaptation and spread.
icipe
icipeInternational Centre of Insect
Physiology and Ecology
P.O. Box 30772-00100
Nairobi, Kenya
Tel: +254 (20) 8632000
Fax: +254 (20) 8632001/8632002
E-mail: [email protected]
in Ethiopia, Tanzania and Uganda, trials are being carried
out in Nigeria and the technology has been adapted for
use in South Africa. The profile of the technology is rising
steadily far beyond its homeland of Western Kenya.
The need for adaptive agricultural practices that
can cope with increasingly variable climatic conditions
and still produce food for people and livestock
has never been greater; neither has the need for
development pathways that respect ecological limits
and restore ecosystem health. Experiences with push
pull offer important lessons about developing and
implementing the kind of climate-smart technologies
that are needed to meet these challenging goals.
Acknowledgements
Thanks are due to the European Union for funding
the ADOPT Project (DCI-Food/2010/230224) for the
development and dissemination of climate-smart pushpull.