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Impact of Organic and Conventional Farming Systems on Termite Presence, Diversity and Maize Crop Damage

Anyango, John; Bautze, David and Adamtey, Noah (2019) Impact of Organic and Conventional Farming Systems on Termite Presence, Diversity and Maize Crop Damage. In: Proceedings Tropentag "Filling gaps and removing traps for sustainable resource management", 18-20 September 2019, Kassel, Germany.

[thumbnail of Anyango_etal_2019_Tropentag_Termites.pdf] PDF - Published Version - English
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Document available online at: https://www.tropentag.de/2019/abstracts/links/Bautze_2BQFeOhH.pdf


Summary

Termites are major soil macrofauna and within the literature, they are either depict as ‘pests’ or an important indicator for environmental sustainability. It is worthwhile to understand the extent to which termites can be managed to avoid crop damage and to improve the sustainability of farming systems. Therefore, the objectives of the study were to assess the effect of organic and conventional farming systems on termite presence, diversity, activity and crop damage. To achieve these objectives, we conducted a study in the maize crops on the on-going long-term systems comparisons trials (SysCom) at two sites in the Central Highlands of Kenya. The trial is comparing organic and conventional farming systems at two input levels: low input representing smallholder farmer practice and high input representing commercial scale practice.
The results showed higher termite abundance, incidence, activity, and diversity in the organic high input farming system compared to the other farming systems. However, the overall the damage patterns due to termites appeared to be a function of farming systems, plant growth stages, trial site, type and amount of fertiliser and/or organic material applied.
During the study period, we identified nine different termite genera that belong to three subfamilies: (i) Macrotermitinae (genera: Allodontotermes, Ancistrotermes, Macrotermes, Odontotermes, and Pseudocanthotermes), (ii) Termitinae (Amitermes and Cubitermes) and (iii) Nasutitiermitinae (Trinervitermes). Our findings demonstrate that certain farming systems attract termites, which are an important, and often beneficial, component of soil fauna. Nonetheless, damage patterns were not necessarily higher in these farming systems and thus not generally lead to higher yield loss.


EPrint Type:Conference paper, poster, etc.
Type of presentation:Paper
Keywords:Farming systems, organic agriculture, termites
Agrovoc keywords:
Language
Value
URI
English
termites -> Isoptera
http://aims.fao.org/aos/agrovoc/c_3969
English
plant damage
http://aims.fao.org/aos/agrovoc/c_49898
English
long-term experiments
http://aims.fao.org/aos/agrovoc/c_4f8733aa
English
organic agriculture
http://aims.fao.org/aos/agrovoc/c_15911
Subjects: Environmental aspects > Biodiversity and ecosystem services
Crop husbandry > Crop health, quality, protection
"Organics" in general > Countries and regions > Africa
Research affiliation: Switzerland > FiBL - Research Institute of Organic Agriculture Switzerland > International > Agriculture in the Tropics and Subtropics > Langzeitversuche
Switzerland > FiBL - Research Institute of Organic Agriculture Switzerland > International > Agriculture in the Tropics and Subtropics > Systems comparison
Deposited By: Bautze, David
ID Code:42566
Deposited On:19 Jul 2022 12:16
Last Modified:19 Jul 2022 12:16
Document Language:English
Status:Published
Refereed:Peer-reviewed and accepted

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