Soil-dwelling worms threatening farmers’ livelihoods
Channel: Science & Development Network
Date: 2019-07-18

“The nematodes kill off the roots, thus preventing plants from taking up the required water and mineral salts. When a plant’s leaves starts to grow weak and lean towards the ground, it is not necessarily due to [the] lack of rainfall,” explains Danny Coyne, a nematologist with the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture. 

“This can be due to the weakening of the roots caused by the nematodes. Weak roots have poor anchorage and are unable to hold the plant properly on the ground.”
According to Coyne, a group of soil-dwelling worms called the root knot nematodes is probably the single greatest group of pathogens threatening agriculture. 

“Currently, we are experiencing the first discovery of potato cyst nematode in Sub-Saharan Africa, specifically in Kenya, which has high potential to become a major issue across the region as the pest is distributed through, among others, unintentional distribution of infected material,”  Coyne tells SciDev.Net. 

The crops infected with nematodes are also more susceptible to diseases and have difficulty in taking up water.

https://www.scidev.net/sub-saharan-africa/farming/feature/soil-dwelling-worms-threatening-farmers-livelihoods.html