Organic: Finding reveals neem oil as cowpea repellent

Contrary to the general belief that organically produced crops cannot match with the pace of our growing population toward sustainable food security, a research finding has confirmed that cowpea now got an organic pesticide to combat the devastating disease impeding its commercial production. This was contained in a number 8 monograph, 2018 of the best practices in Organic Agriculture production system.

In the monograph, it was revealed that neem oil mixed with local soap  at a live organic farm at Ago Owu, Osun state, Nigeria has been confirmed as an effective pest repellent to control cowpea popular disease in Nigeria that is impeding its commercial production.

The report stated that ‘’ the high susceptibility of cowpea to pest has been a major constraint preventing farmers from cultivating cowpea under organic production system. However, it was recently reported that neem oil, a biopesticde effectively controlled pest in cowpea production’’

It was said that farmer in Ago Owu farm applied neem oil at the rate of 15ml to 1 litre of water while local black soap was added to ensure proper mixing. The result revealed that neem oil controlled pest attack effectively in cowpea production and it can thus be a reliable bio-pesticide for organic cowpea production. 

Also the research work encouraged crop rotation for soil fertility adding that ‘’ this finding could encourage the introduction of cowpea as a component of crop rotation scheme by organic farmers in a bid to improve the soil fertility’’