Push-Pull Agricultural Pest Management

Push-pull technology is an intercropping strategy for controlling agricultural pests, most often the stem borers that infest cereal crops such as maize and sorghum, by combining a repellent push plant with a trap pull plant. Grasses attractive to the pests are planted around the perimeter of the field to draw them away from the crop, while a plant such as Desmodium is planted between the crop rows to repel the pests and also suppress the parasitic plant Striga. It was developed at the International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology in Kenya, in collaboration with Rothamsted Research in the United Kingdom and national partners, and has since been taught to smallholder farmers through partnerships with universities, NGOs and research organizations.