![[Cote d'Ivoire] A young child and mother return from their small growing plot with the days harvest. The two live in an IDP camp for those driven from their home by the country's civil war. Small gardens supplement their food handouts in an attempt to cop](https://assets.thenewhumanitarian.org/s3fs-public/styles/responsive_large_2x/public/images/200581112.jpg.webp?itok=2s2asmlA "Will conservation agriculture help ensure a better harvest for the future?")
Heard of striga weed (also known as the witchweed)? Click here for a picture.
According to the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), “the pretty pink flowers of… striga belie its devastating impact on cereals such as maize, sorghum, millet and rice.”
Striga compensates for the lack of its own root system by penetrating the roots of other plants, diverting essential nutrients from them, and stunting their growth. It infests an estimated two-thirds of the 73 million hectares of cereal crops in Africa, resulting in crop losses of up to 70 percent among subsistence farmers. Striga reduces cereal yields in Africa by an estimated 4.1 million tonnes a year, and its effects are particularly widespread in the Sahel region.
But good news is around the corner: According to the International Crops Research Institute for Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), researchers have successfully identified and transferred genes that confer resistance to striga in sorghum.
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This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions