The article discusses efforts by a plant pathologist at the Kenya Agriculture and Livestock Organization to control Striga, a damaging parasitic weed affecting farmers' crops in Kenya. Striga can devastate harvests and has proven nearly impossible to eradicate through traditional means. The pathologist has been researching the use of the fungus Fusarium oxysporum f. sp strigae since 2008, demonstrating that it can kill Striga without harming crops, improving yields by 40% in trials. Despite its promise, implementing this solution practically for farmers has posed challenges such as propagation difficulties from fungus-cultivated toothpicks.
Since 2008, I've focused on using a fungus called Fusarium oxysporum f. sp strigae, that kills Striga without harming crops.
Farmers try pulling it out, but the weed is extremely resilient because its tiny seeds can lie dormant in the soil for a long time.
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