ACROSS east Africa, thousands of farmers are planting weeds in their maize
fields. Bizarre as it sounds their technique is actually raising yields by
giving the insect pests something else to chew on besides maize. “It’s better
than pesticides, and a lot cheaper,” said Ziadin Khan, whose idea it is, as he
showed me round his demonstrations plots at the Mbita Point research station on
the shores of Lake Victoria in Kenya. “And it has raised farm yields round here
by 60 to 70 per cent.”
His novel method of fighting pests is one of a host of low-tech innovations…
