Making A plant based Pesticide.

Making a plant based pesticide.

This training was facilitated by our volunteer Julia Hedberg who was working on a soil management project that aimed at improving the quality of the soil and increasing farm output. The training was conducted in in Get Smart group in Luteete village.

The training was requested by group members as a result of having grown vegetables that were being attacked by pests (worms and aphids) that were destroying the vegetables in the kitchen gardens. Among the vegetables that the group was growing include; Cabbages, Egg plants, Carrots, Sukuma wiki and beet root.

Group members locally collected inputs from bushes and their plantations since some of the inputs used to make the plant based pesticide naturally grow in these places as weeds and others grow on their own and get reserved for human consumption.

Members chose to make organic pesticides because they are safer for the environment and they don’t have any harm to their health.

The pesticides are very effective in the control of pests and they are not dangerous to livestock on the farm such as goats, chicken and others.

The organic pesticide is easy to make and it doesn’t require high capital investment in making the pesticide unlike the synthetic pesticides that are expensive which some farmers can’t afford.

How to make a plant based pesticide (CHILLI–GARLIC PESTICIDE)

To make a Chilli- Garlic pesticide, we used the following ingredients which members collected from the community.  The pesticide is called Chilli-Garlic pesticide because chilli and garlic are the main ingredients and act as repellants in the organic pestcide. This means the pesticide doesn’t kill organisms that don’t come in contact with it but instead get repelled from attacking the crop from a distance. Another key ingredient is tephrosia locaaly known as “Muluku” which kills pests that ingest the leafy parts of the crop that are sprayed with it.

Ingredients

• 1 cup of chilli
• 1 bar of hard white soap
• 1 head of garlic
• 1 kilogram of Tephrosia leaves (Muluku)
• 20 litres of water
• 1 jerrican of 20 litres
• Cloth
• Spray pump or knapsack

Instructions

1. Chop the Tephrosia leaves into small pieces
2. Crush the chilli and the garlic

3. Scrape the soap into small shavings
4. Boil 20 litres of water with the soap until it forms a “jelly” substance
5. Add all of the other ingredients to the water (chilli, garlic, Tephrosia)
6. Stir to mix all the ingredients well with the water
7. Boil for 1 hour
8. Let the solution (pesticide) set for 1 week
9. After 1 week, filter the solution through a cloth
10. To use the pesticide, mix at a ratio of 1:2 (1 cup of pesticide with 2 cups of water)
11. Spray using a small spray pump or knapsack

NB: This organic pesticide can be used to control all pests and should be used within 3 weeks.

Our harvest. The plant based pesticide is effective and the results are interesting.

Below is one of the healthy cabbages we harvested after using the plant based pesticide.