Farmers experiences on the blue gum chalcid, leptocybe invasa, infestation on eucalyptus species in East Africa

Abstract

Understanding indigenous knowledge and practices is important in facilitating the development and introduction of pest management technologies that meet farmers' aspirations and are, thus, likely to be adopted by them. This paper documents farmers' knowledge, perceptions and control practices of a gall-forming wasp, Leptocybe invasa Fisher & LaSalle, in Uganda and Kenya with the aim of developing integrated management of the pest. Although the vast majority offarmers interviewed had observed the symptoms of L. invasa infestation on Eucalyptus, very few of them were aware of the causative agent. They reported the infestation as causing reduced growth rate, deformation and mortality of Eucalyptus. However, most farmers did not attempt to control the infestation because they did not know suitable control methods and/or the cause. Only 19%of farmers in Uganda and 26% in Kenya had received advice on L. invasa. Even after observing severe L. invasa infestation, most farmers interviewed still wanted to plant Eucalyptus, which most of them considered as an important ~urce of income, firewood and construction materials. As plantation forestry are developed and promoted, there is a n~ed to integrate farmers' knowledge about tree pests into the development processes in order to improve their pest management practices.