System that keeps my farm free from aphids

Charles Ndung’u in his miraa farm in Laikipia with an electric system made of bulbs and plastic bags. PHOTO | SOPHIE MBUGUA |

What you need to know:

  • Farmer did research on the internet to come up with control method.
  • Miraa bushes, according to the farmer, must not be sprayed with pesticides since people consume raw leaves and twigs.

A pole with a bulb and several electricity wires in Charles Ndung’u’s miraa farm in Matanya village, Laikipia County, have awed many ever since he erected them about a year ago.

A few metres from the pole, placed at different locations on the farm are several yellow plastic traps each erected on two sticks.

Ndung’u has come up with the system to help ward off aphids and whiteflies from his farm.

“The yellow polythene materials act as traps for the insects that attack miraa. I normally smear on them grease and when the aphids come into contact with the bags, they get stuck and die,” he explains.

The yellow traps resemble miraa buds in colour.

Aphids normally attack the buds and feed on them.

“The system works well at night. I light the bulb and the aphids and whiteflies will get attracted to the yellow traps.”

Ndung’u has been growing miraa on a quarter acre for over three years. He started by planting 350 miraa seedlings that he bought from a farmer in Kiritiri, Embu and added more. Now he has 1,200 trees.

He came up with the method after aphids invaded his farm and started sucking sap from his young miraa crops.

“I realised there was a problem when my clients complained that my miraa was too dry as it contained little sap compared to that from Embu and Meru,” says the 34-year-old farmer.

So how did he discover this unique method of solving the problem?

Ndung’u says he did some research on the internet and talked to an agricultural officer who advised him to use the yellow sticky traps.

“The bulb system, though, was my own creation after watching insects converge around the source of light at night. I later experimented with a torch on my farm at night and saw the aphids and whiteflies swarm around the light.”

He decided to incorporate the bulbs with the yellow traps.

“Every morning I find the insects stuck on the yellow polythene bags. It was not easy to get it right. I started with transparent polythene bags which did not work well,” says Ndung’u.

MUST NOT BE SPRAYED

He spent Sh35,000 to buy a 40 watts solar panel and a battery. This was besides the electricity wires, bulbs and labour.

Miraa bushes, according to the farmer, must not be sprayed with pesticides since people consume raw leaves and twigs.

Aphids and whiteflies also survive by sucking the green chlorophyll in crops.

“That is the dilemma I faced before I came up with the technology but now I have overcome the problem once and for all,” says the farmer, who is working on eliminating other insects from his farm using the 20 sticky traps and 11 bulbs on his farm.

Beatrice Theuri, an agricultural officer with Ministry of Agriculture, says Ndung’u’s idea is brilliant but she notes he used a lot of money to install it.

“He should have bought ‘insect stickers’ and erected them in his miraa farm and this would have accomplished the same. The bulb may not be necessary,” she says, adding that the stickers can be used on any other crop.

John Wambugu, an agronomist from Wambugu Agricultural Training Centre, says yellow material attracts many insects, the reason why "insect stickers" are made of the colour.

He notes that bulbs also produce heat that helps prevent blight from attacking crops.

“Blight does not affect crops in areas that are warmer at night but as time goes by, pockets of his farm which do not receive the warmth from the bulb, will be affected by the disease,” says Wambugu.

But the electric system has also improved Ndung’u’s harvest.

The farmer who has set up a small miraa kiosk in Matanya picks three plastic bags of the produce after every three days. The three bags fetch Sh3,000.