Protecting the crops against pests
Now this is all fine and dandy but if you did all this and then realised that the bugs had eaten practically all your crops because they didn’t have any pesticides to keep them away then you wouldn’t be feeling too great. This is why Oxfam have also found a cost-friendly way of getting rid of the bugs that eat the crops.
| One of the shield plants. |
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Oxfam has been teaching people to put ‘shield plants’ around the cotton fields and inside them. Shield plants can be marigolds or papayas, which also give them fruit. These act as bait for flies and moths that lay their eggs on the cotton leaves. Now instead of laying them on the cotton leaves, they lay them on the other plant. Then every week the farmer comes and he burns all the leaves that have had eggs laid on them. This is at virtually no cost. Well, they have to pay for the plant but it doesn’t cost that much.
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