White Mango Scale Insect’s Infestations and Its Implications in Guto Gida and Diga Distrcts of East Wellega Zone

Abstract

The insect is a serious threat to the mango production in both Goto Gida and Diga districts. The pest has recently distributed all over where mango trees stand in Guto Gida and Diga distrcts. As a result of full scale infestation of the pest hindered mango production severely. The grower farmers are currently no longer regarded mango tree as a crop that render them economic benefits since infestation has already distributed all over mango growing areas and caused them bad experience. This was mainly because of controlling the pest has become the issue beyond their capacity and this compounded by absence of external support to overcome this challenge. As a result, they appeared somewhat frustrated and started to contemplate other negative measure like cutting the trees and using the land for alternative crops. Given that many mango farmers in the area were not viable in diversifying in farm and off-farm income that they are more vulnerable to this kind of shock. During the field discussion with the participating farmers of both districts, it was learnt that the farming community looked more resilient to this shock. For it was so, there was no as such a conspicuous disruption on observed in their livelihood situation. However, this does not mean that all mango grower farmers were uniformly affected by the insect and responded to the pest‟s effects in a similar way. Economically, mango grower farmers were variously affected by loss of mango income which was ascribed to failure in harvest during the last cropping season. The economic effect and degree of their resilience was ultimately lie on the individual household‟s livelihood capacities. These capacities include possession of assets (eg. live stock), household cropping pattern i.e. size and land allocation for various crops cultivation, availability of labor forces, household income diversifications and etc. Furthermore, this vulnerability is affected by other factors described by the discussant groups. These include age, gender, and etc. For instance, children and older people who have no labor support at home, as well as women were identified as more vulnerable group to the pest. The insect has currently, become a growing concern among various government organizations and civil societies and communities. The problem is no more regarded as economic one as it has social, environmental, and other repercussions. Its wider implications therefore, call for urgent coordinated and concerted measures to be taken against this challenge. So, suppressing the insect population to the level where not cause economic damage on mango fruit will have no alternative. This calls for establishment of platform/partnership that will channel and integrate the available resources and efforts towards desired direction. Towards this, the following practical recommendations were forwarded as an outcome of this assessment.