‘Spraying should be the last option’: how farmers are exploring alternatives to pesticides

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When pesticide proved no match for the insect, desperate Phyllis Nvuda tried a new way to save her infested orchardFor two decades, Phyllis Nduva, 72, has grown mangoes and citrus in Wote, a town in Kenya’s eastern Makueni County. In the beginning, she only had to worry about ordinary fruit flies. She handled them simply, buying chemical pesticides and spraying her trees whenever they appeared.But then, in 2014, the false codling moth turned up on her farm. The small brown creature had been caus