Polycultural farming is widely practised in East Africa and has the advantage of ensuring a steady supply of food for the family throughout seasons of adequate rainfall. The food crops interplanted are cereals, root and oil crops with at least one legume species. There is a large pest complex associated with the system, but the severity of attack has only been quantified for a few. Pest management is largely indirect relying on natural enemies, weather conditions and removal and destruction of damaged plants. Wood ash is probably the only direct control applied. Crop yield losses are on the average minimal. Among pest management strategies proposed for the future are: introduction and propagation of pest resistant high-yield crop varieties, compatibility between food crops interplanted, suitability of soil types for a given combination, augmentation of beneficial insects and the use of nematode-suppressor plants either as interplants or during crop rotation and fallowing.
