One morning in April 2017, in the middle of what is referred to in the country as agriculture season B, which starts in March and ends in April, farmers in Rwanda woke up to a strange phenomenon in their maize plots. The leaves of their barely knee high crop were completely tattered, as if hit by a hailstorm.
A key goal of icipe is to ensure that the Centre’s technologies are transferred to as many end users as possible. To achieve this vision, icipe uses a range of strategies, including the media, to create awareness. The effectiveness of these efforts is demonstrated by the impressive story of Jona Mutasa, a Zimbabwean farmer who learnt about the Centre’s Push-Pull through a magazine article, and has now become a prominent trainer, leading to over 2000 farmers adopting the technology.