Assessment of yield economic losses caused by pests and diseases in selected maize production ecosystems in Shamva district Mashonaland central.
- Author
- Wakafakare, Sarah
- Title
-
Assessment of yield economic losses caused by pests and diseases in
selected maize production ecosystems in Shamva district Mashonaland central. - Abstract
- The study sought to assess the impact of pests and diseases on maize yield, to explore the role of pests and diseases on causing economic losses in maize production and to determine effective pest and diseases control strategies that can enhance yields and improve the financial conditions of maize farmers. A mixed method research methodology anchor on pragmatist philosophy and a case study research design was used in this research due to its ability to merge quantitative and qualitative components of data collection and presentation (Benton, and Craib, 2023). Findings indicated that Fall Armyworm is a significantly important pest aggravating the impacts of pre-existing invasive alien species. The pest was noted to result in an average of 0.7 tons per acre of maize loss incurred by farmers with the highest reported being 2.7 tons per acre in the study area. The study found that maize yield losses related to Fall Armyworm were aggravated by the area under maize production, group membership, household size, and Fall Armyworm damage intensity as described by farmers. The yield losses were found to decrease with access to extension services, years of formal schooling attained, farm income, and distance to market. The findings are contrary to the stated hypothesis that, farmer, farm specific, and institutional factors taken individually have no effect on the magnitude of yield losses in maize. Farmers seemed not to harbor any reservations on the efficacy of the practices they employed to increase maize productivity by managing the pest and promotion efforts to encourage the use of the practices. This implies that farmers perceived that combination of practices as a leveraging approach towards maximizing the efforts on effective management of the pest.
- Date
- September 2025
- Publisher
- BUSE
- Keywords
- Pests and diseases
- Maize yield
- Maize production a
- Supervisor
- Prof R. Mandumbu
- Item sets
- Department of Crop Sciences
