Animals & nature · 2024
How much damage can weeds cause to cereal harvests in Africa?
A review reports cereal yield losses ranging from 10% to 100% where Striga weeds occur in Africa. It also attributes about half of maize yield loss in Nigeria to uncontrolled Imperata cylindrica weeds. These estimates concern different weeds and settings, not a single loss rate for all African cereal farms.
Details
The review examines threats to African cereal production from weeds and crop-damaging animals, rather than reporting a new experiment. Striga weeds live on other plants and draw resources from them. The review reports that they infest more than 64% of Africa’s cereal-growing land, alongside the reported yield-loss range of 10–100%.
The Nigeria estimate concerns Imperata cylindrica when it is not controlled. It describes the share of maize yield loss attributed to that weed, not a measured benefit from removing it. The abstract does not give the underlying study designs or comparisons used to produce these estimates, so they cannot establish how much a particular farm would gain from weed control.
The authors also suggest that drought and flooding associated with a changing climate could intensify threats to cereal production. This is a concern raised by the review, not a newly measured increase in weed damage.
What do you think?
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