Agricultural Innovation and Biocontrol in sub-Saharan Africa

Across sub-Saharan Africa native and invasive crop pests, such as the fall armyworm (FAW), Spodoptera frugiperda, continue to threaten smallholder farming systems and their food security. The FAW invasion has caused estimated crop losses worth $3 billion a year (Stokstad, 2017) and has highlighted a critical need to develop effective and sustainable methods of control that are compatible with existing farming systems and adaptable to future challenges, including climate extremes and novel pests. Push-pull approaches to pest management in cropping systems have been developed, trialled and promoted since the 1970s, by the International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology (ICIPE) and other organisations. These are based on a dual mechanism of in-field planting of pest repellent crops in-field and bordering fields with an attractive trap crop. Such systems have been shown to effectively reduce the need for harmful chemical pesticides for controlling crop pests. However, while the scientific evidence for the benefits of novel innovations like push-pull technology (Midega et al. 2015; Midega et al. 2018) is compelling, documented adoption rates for such practices amongst African small scale farmers remains low.

Studies of agricultural innovation have shed light on why common conceptions about technology transfer and the adoption of agricultural practices, are often over-simplistic (Glover et al., 2019). There are many documented cases of technologies that work within controlled field trials, not translating into the complex reality of real farming systems (Whitfield, 2015). It is also well recognised that innovation is not a linear process that ends with the adoption of a practice, but rather that farmers are engaged in a continual process of learning, knowledge sharing, experimentation and local adaptation. Moreover, the promotion of different technologies and farming approaches takes place within wider politics of donor-driven agricultural research and development, which is to some extent fuelled by narratives of technological solutions and the monitoring of their uptake (Whitfield et al., 2015). It is only by understanding these complex dynamics that we can contribute to an appropriate and productive innovation process.

The PhD will be aligned to the UKRI-funded Scaling up Biocontrol Innovations in Africa project and in collaboration with ICIPE, in Mbita, Kenya. Working with ICIPE and drawing on their network of demonstration sites, agricultural extension activities and farmer field schools in Kenya, the research will adopt an interdisciplinary approach (working across social and biological sciences) to exploring and understanding the impact of and the innovation process around crop pest biocontrol practices.

Depending on the expertise and interests of the student, the proposed project will potentially involve a combination of:
(1) analysis of the impact of push-pull and other biocontrol strategies on farms, demonstration plots, and experimental field stations (including through fieldwork hosted by ICIPE at Mbita field station in western Kenya);
(2) analysis of multi-country household survey data, and conducting participatory rural livelihoods research, for evaluating farm level innovation in response to the promotion of biocontrol practices;
(3) analysis of the political and donor networks that drive agricultural research for development and promote different biocontrol technologies