Introduction
Termite infestation is prevalent worldwide especially in the tropics where the distribution, problems and constraints result in livelihood threats, particularly among rural small-scale farmers [1,2]. Three thousand species of termites have been described, and only very few are considered to be the agricultural pests [3]. Termites originated from Sub- Saharan Africa, and species numbers are highest in rainforest habitats [4]. Across the world, there are more than 3016 termite species in 300 genera, Among the world fauna, 1000 species belong to African termite’s fauna [5]. There are 61 species 25 genera and four families of termite in Ethiopia [6]. Termite fauna of Western Ethiopia include the genera: Macrotermes, Odontotermes, Microtermes, Amitermes, Microcerotermes, Angulitermes, and Trinervitermes. Out of these. Macroterms subhyalinus (Rambur) and Microtermes adschaggae (Sjosted) were the most abundant ones [7].
Termites are becoming a threat to the farming community as all major field crops such as cereals (rice, wheat, barley, maize, millet and sorghum), vegetables (tomato, okra, pepper, eggplant, potato and cassava), fruits (guava, citrus, banana, mango, papaya, grapes, mulberry, pineapple, almond, litchi and plum), legumes (beans, cowpea and chickpea), oilseeds (groundnut, sunflower, soybean and sesame) and ornamental plants are affected by termites [8-9]. Information on economic losses yield losses on maize crop in African countries varies, for example, in Kenya and Tanzania 30%, in Ethiopia 60%, in south western Nigeria 100% damage recorded [10].
Worldwide, termite control is commonly based on the use of chemical insecticides that have a negative impact on the environment and human health [11-12]. However, in Africa, farmers often use traditional pest management practices to control termites [2,11 &12]. The indigenous knowledge systems and technologies are readily available, socially desirable, economically affordable and sustainable and involve minimum risk to rural farmers and producers and above all they are widely believed to conserve resources [13].
Thus, indigenous agricultural practices are cost- effective, time-tested, eco-friendly and serve to sustain agricultural development. Indigenous knowledge is developed and adapted continuously to gradually changing environments and passed down from generations to generations and closely interwoven with people’s cultural values. It is also the social capital of the poor, their main asset to invest in the struggle for survival, to produce food, to provide for shelter or to achieve control of their own lives. In addition to documenting the traditional knowledge of the farmers, it is important to understand the ecological mechanisms behind their practices [14- 16]. This is vital to application of traditional practices to new situations. Furthermore, and more importantly, the understanding of the traditional practices by outsiders may be useful for the empowerment of farmers at the local level [16-20]. To make termites management environmentally friendly, there is a need to integrate indigenous knowledge about termite management techniques into the scaling-up process in order to improve farmers’ termite management practices. Therefore, the current review where to provide biology, distributions and farmer knowledge of termite with feasibility of control mechanism employed by farmers. Exploring such kinds of indigenous knowledge’s of farmers was helpful to establish appropriate, inexpensive means of pest managements practice for the local community as well as for the other smallholder’s farmers.
Materials And Methods
As a methodology the main source for this a literature review to capture insights on indigenous knowledge (IK), based on selected academic literature published in peer-reviewed journals, book chapters, and conference papers used to review. Through searching results 51 papers were retrieved and for the period of year of 1966-2023 and by reading abstract, introduction and conclusion parts data of these paper were identified that meet the objective of this report. Then, country of origin, year of publication, publisher, journal name, focus areas of the paper, methodology and findings of the paper were considered and analyzed.
Habit and Habitat
Termites are xylophagus, principal food is cellulose. The workers feed on decaying wood, paper, fabrics and other fiber plants or the plant materials such as humus, grass, fungi, etc. The termites obtain nourishment from a cellulose diet distribution of termites because of presence of certain protozoa in their digestive tract, which possess enzymes capable of digesting cellulose. Termites usually avoid direct light. They make an irregular network of large interconnected galleries through which they travel from their nests to the food source. Oviposition by the primary queen will be low at first, but in due course of time she assumes massive morph measuring 2-4 inches and may give rise to a colony consisting of over a million termites. The individuals produced in a colony in the early stages are all sterile caste. The alate reproductive develop later on. When the colony becomes big enough the king and the queen, among higher termites, remain in a royal cell lodged deep in the termite mound [21].
Biology
Primary and supplementary reproductive adults are present in termite colonies. The primary reproductive are king and queen, which are the founder of the nest and colony. They are pigmented adults with initial fully developed wings. Their role is reproduction and the initiation of the colony. King or male reproductive goes for nuptial flights, copulates with the queen and fertilizes her by insemination. Queen or female reproductive stores the sperm in the spermathecae after the copulation and uses them to sire the unfertilized eggs. These adults mate only once. The main role for a queen is to produce eggs as she lays more than 3000 eggs per day, gradually enlarging her body, especially the abdomen, to accommodate the eggs [22]. These are yellowish-white in colour, and the incubation period may be prolonged to 50– 60 days. After incubation, the nymphs hatch out in the form of neonates. They undergo a number of molting’s before becoming adults. The termites are hemimetabolous, undergoing an incomplete metamorphosis. Unlike most other insects, very little is known about molting in termites, particularly in the subterranean group. Reasons for this lack of information include the absence of synchronization in the timing of molt, the cryptic nature of subterranean termites and their long-life cycle. It takes about 4– 5 years for a termite colony to reach its maximum size, with more than 60,000–200,000 workers. These further modify into sterile soldiers or remain as sterile workers during the course of time. Morphologically, the workers and soldiers are 6–8 mm in length and pale cream in colour. The soldiers have enlarged heads with black jaws. Both workers and soldiers are devoid of wings and usually lack eyes [23]. The life cycle of termites starts with the dispersal of winged reproductive to colonize new resources. The mating pair sheds their wings and establishes a new nest. Then the queen oviposits, the eggs hatch and the nymphs develop into different forms. The castes are determined during post-embryonic development, and each larva (first or second instar termite) can become a worker, soldier or reproductive [24]. The reproductive caste can have multiple forms reviewed by the primary reproductive are alate derived and are the king and queen in the colony [25]. A neotenic reproductive is a reproductive that is not derived from an alate and still retains some juvenile characteristics.
Ecology
Ecologically, the termites act as “ecosystem engineers” as they influence processes and properties of soil structure and hydrology, nutrient availability, and organic matter decomposition. They affect the productivity and composition of plant communities by tunneling, breakdown and deposition of organic matter (saliva and feces), and soil translocation [26-27]. Many termite species produce methane and fix atmospheric carbon and nitrogen via symbiotic microorganisms in their hindgut, thus making them available to other soil organisms [28-29]. However, the amount of methane is negligible (between 0.02 and 0.09 Tg year−1) as compared to other non-termite sources (over 600 Tg year−1) [27&30]. They serve an important ecological role in the decomposition of cellulose materials that cannot be chemically broken down without the presence of the enzyme cellulase secreted by single-celled protozoans [31]. Termite can produce up to 2 liters of hydrogen from digesting a single sheet of paper, making them one of the most efficient bioreactors on the planet [32].
Yield Losses
Termites are highly destructive and polyphagous pests of crop plants, which damage green foliage, seedlings, wood, fibers including household cellulose-based materials, and postharvest stored products [33]. Most of the pest species are able to reduce yields significantly, and the crop losses may exceed over 100% in regions such as East Africa and North Asia [34]. Usually they infest roots, woody tissue, and leaves of eucalyptus, upland rice, and sugarcane. Further, cassava, coffee, cotton, fruit trees, maize, peanuts, soybeans, and vegetables are other hosts of termites [35]. suggested that the plants which are being stressed by biotic (insects’ pests and diseases) and abiotic factors (drought, nutrient deficiency etc.) attract more damage by termites. Infestation due to termites was observed up to 20- 25% in rainfed and up to 10% in irrigated crops [36]. Such losses are more pronounced in ergonomically and physiologically poor soils. Globally, the estimated loss due to termite damage is about 50 billion USD [37], although estimates vary considerably by the cropping systems followed in different geographical regions. Losses due to termite attack had been observed to be up to 25-30, 10-15 and 5-17% in cowpea (Vigna sinensis), moth bean (Phaseolus aconitifolius) and moong (Phaseolus radiatus), respectively [38]. Yield losses occurred in cereal crops 13-80, 50-100, 67-85% in wheat, rice and maize, respectively [39,40,41]. Infestation in horticulture crop such as mango, lemon and apple cinnamon the termite infestation observed is recorded up to 80, 58 and 11.11%, respectively [42]. Yield losses in oil seed Groundnut 10-30% [38], 33% in soybean [43].
Management of Termites Termites are difficult to manage due to their dynamic living strategies which make them major destruction in different crops. Most of the species live in underground nests with ramification of galleries, so it is rather difficult to locate and reach them. Regular monitoring of fields to detect activities of termites and their damage can save the plants from damage. At present, chemical control is the major component for management [44&45]. But due to increasing concern about their harmful environmental effects, there is a need to find out ecofriendly approaches for its management by keeping the chemical control as a last resort. Several techniques for IPM programme are available.
Indigenous Approaches for the Management of Termite
Different indigenous knowledge for termite managements have been used by different communities in different parts of the country to protect their crop from termites. Research conducted in Gushegu-Karaga district in the northern region of Ghana indicated that Five termite prevention and control methods were identified: - burial of plant and animal materials, application of wood ash, application of a mixture of salt and Shea butter residue, planting of elephant grass and ‘banchi’ methods. Planting of elephant grass was found to be the most common method used by the farmers, while burial of plant and animal materials was found to be the most effective method of termite control in the area. Despite their well-known role as pests, termites are considered important in the area because they provide necessary ecosystem services [46]. In Ethiopia, traditional knowledge employed to control termite methods are employed to shift away from the stress or to devise a means to tolerate termites [47]. Stated that, farmer’s that pain with termites’ problems used different methods of indigenous termite control. Traditional termite management varies with the farmer practices often termite venerable areas are more adopting the management. Flooding mounds, queen removal with mound destruction, and suffocating mound with straws in excavated top of mounds, powering dissolved salt+pepper+areke and tela residue, manually removing galleries from the wall of house, adding ash to mounds established in house, using termite resistant plant for construction, keeping harvested teff on craton leaf, making heap of crops on base made of termite resistant wood, traditional storage structures are among cultural methods practiced in the central rift valley of Ethiopia. Research report at western Ethiopia by among the indigenous termite management practices, results underline that the farmers relay on disturbing mound by digging to exclude termite queen, flooding termite mounds, sealing of mound with chopped removed weeds, adding pepper dissolved with ash, and salt, irrigating with tela and areke residue (atela), got urine mixed with hot animal dung to cause suffocation that might induce termite removal from their farm [48]. Similarly, in Eastern Wollega conducted research farmers use different strategies to minimize the effect of termite on maize: plant tolerant crop type, smoking mounds using peppers pods or eucalyptus trees leaves, Hoe weeding practice or ridging soon after rain use high seed rate or replanting, using hot ashes around house and field, directing water runoff into ant hills, physical removal Queen were found to be the most effective indigenous method of termite control in the area [49]. Moreover, indigenous knowledge of termites control methods in five farming communities in Gadau district Bauchi state Nigeria were identified these methods included: Cow urine + Pepper application, Direct pouring of water on termite nest, Wood ash and Salt in shea butter residue [50]. In Case of Nedjo District, West Wollega, Ethiopia, the research found that the main traditional control methods practices by the farmers are: digging the mound and removal of the queen; flooding the termite nest; Smoking with crop residues, hot pepper and cow dung; Applying wood ash, hot local alcohol residues, gas or salts; Planting termite tolerant trees, herbs and grasses [51].
Conclusion
In contrast to modern technologies, indigenous termite control practices do not involve as termite control chemicals as they utilize locally available bio resources. Hence, indigenous termite control practices may be propagated and promoted not only for the benefit of the people but also for maintaining agricultural sustainability and ecological balance. In the present review, majority of the indigenous termite control practices are found to be rational and effective and such practices will definitely be valuable, and may be directly recommended for adoption in order to ensure sustainable farming. Hence, efforts to improve the knowledge and adoption of indigenous practices by the farmers may be undertaken which would act as an impetus for promotion of indigenous practices which are ecofriendly and conserving natural resources. Further, concerted efforts should be made to collect and document various indigenous knowledge/practices in the field of agriculture, before they become extinct.
