Bio-herbicides fight Striga weed

A researcher samples Striga plants from an invested maize farm at Rongo Migori County. [Sammy Omingo, Standard]

For the last three seasons, he has been planting maize on his one-and-a-half-acre piece of land but getting low yields despite the heavy investments in farm inputs. A parasitic plant known as Striga weed (Kayongo) that has wreaked havoc on the livelihoods of millions of farmers in sub-Saharan Africa is to blame for the losses suffered by Samuel Oraw Adongo, a teacher and farmer from Esikulu village in Matayos sub-county. Striga weed is purple.