The magic of marigolds

The magic of marigolds Cue: With their bright yellow and orange flowers, marigolds are a gardener?s favourite, planted in pots and flower beds around the world. But can you imagine marigolds in vegetable beds, sitting alongside tomatoes and eggplants? Why would a vegetable grower choose to use valuable land for a plant that can?t be eaten? The answer is that marigolds have some very special qualities for the vegetable grower, as Lazarus Laiser found out when he visited the World Vegetable Centre in Arusha, Tanzania. There he met research assistant Omary Ijumaa, who explained several different methods the Centre uses to control pests in its vegetable plots, including the amazing marigolds. IN: ?One thing is to look on the timing ? OUT: ?go ahead with finding a proper solution.? DUR?N: 3?19? BACK ANNOUNCEMENT: Omary Ijumaa of the World Vegetable Centre in Arusha, Tanzania, with some good advice for farmers. The interview comes from a resource pack produced by CTA. Transcript Ijumaa One thing is to look on the timing of growing your crops. The different pests they occur in different times during the year. For instance during maybe rainy season, we can have some kind of pests which are more prevalent and during the dry season we can have some pests which are more troublesome to the crop. So by changing and knowing which crops are affected most at which time you can avoid that. But also we have some measures which we take to reduce incidence of diseases. For instance we are growing this marigold which has the impact on controlling nematodes and also thrips and also leaf miner. Laiser Can it be found here in this garden? Ijumaa Yes, here it is. We have a lot which we put for each experiment. It is a known flower which people here grow as an ornament in their gardens. Laiser Yes we usually see, we even put in our houses, just around the house, around the garden to make it nice because, you know it grows quickly and you can just find that it has very nice flowers, red and yellow and pink. So these are the plants which are used to control pests? Ijumaa Sure this is the plant which we use. So apart from that use as ornamental, you can also use it in your gardens to protect your crops. Laiser Is it only some kind of crops or generally does it chase away all these pests? Ijumaa As I say before that this is mainly for nematodes and thrips and also leaf miner. So whichever crop is affected with that pest, this one can reduce the incidence. Because for instance, thrips, they will be attracted with this yellow colour. So instead of going to your crop they come to this flower. So they reduce the incidence which can occur in your crops. Laiser So when it is attracted what happens, it dies or...? Ijumaa No, what you do with that, when they are attracted here so it is just like a collection. So we collect all the pests on the one area. So when you come with your chemical now, you can spray once in this flower. So you can capture a lot of the pests there, yes. Also we have a natural pesticide which is very available by the farmers, not much expensive, like hot pepper also we can use as a pesticide. Laiser How do you use that, do you plant or how do you use that? Ijumaa No, we harvest the fruits which is ripened and then you can pound them or crush them and then soak over the night and then you can spray that mixture in your farm, so you can prevent some of the pests. Also we can use resistant materials which we have and which is our mandate to give farmers the materials which is resistant to certain diseases and pests. So by doing that, you can rid out of these pests and diseases. Laiser Which advice do you have to the farmers, focusing on prevention of pests? Ijumaa First of all, finding the problem is the first step of solving the problem. So most of the farmers sometimes they do not know what is their problem. So when you know exactly that this is the disease or this is the pest so that you can go ahead with finding a proper solution. End of trackHow brightly coloured marigolds can protect your vegetable