Awareness of the Parasitic Weed Alectra vogelii (Benth.) Amongst Extension Officers in Three Districts in Malawi

Aims: To determine awareness of legume witchweed A. vogelii, relative to well known cereal witchweed Striga sciatica (L). Kuntze, amongst government extension officers in three districts in Malawi.

Study Design: Survey.

Place and Duration of Study: Kasungu, Mchinji, Lilongwe and Balaka districts in Malawi

Methodology: A structured questionnaire was administered to 118 extension personnel in the study areas. The data were subjected to cross tabulation in SPSS to obtain frequencies of the various study parameters.

Results: Of the 118 officers, 36% were aware A. vogelii, compared to 91% that were aware of S. asiatica while Striga forbesii and S. gesneiroides were hardly known (< 2%). Predominant source of information for A. vogelii was meetings (24%), followed by brochures (17%) and college (3%) while the rest were less than 2 %. For S. asiatica the predominant sources were meetings (55 %), brochures (32 %), college (21 %), and radio (16 %). Field days, newspapers, books, internet and projects were seldom sources (< 6%). The control measures known for both species were resistant variety, sanitation, rotation and manure application. Fewer personnel were aware of these as control measures for A. vogelii than against S. asiatica. Generally, supervisory staff were more aware of control measures for both species than frontline staff.

Conclusion: Results of this study have shown that little awareness exists on the parasitic weed A. vogelii compared to S. asiatica. The current extension methods involving meetings and brochures are operational at very low rates, while there is much less effort for dissemination with media and field days. Meetings are predominant means of information source, and that information flow between extension personnel in supervisory positions and frontline staff is minimum. Knowledge on control methods is poor, particularly for frontline staff