In the Sahel it is one of the greatest obstacle to food production of subsistence farmers, with Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Ghana, Mali, Nigeria and Sudan as the worst affected countries. The weed spreads rapidly in areas of low soil fertility and decreasing plant diversity in crop rotations, conditions often experienced by poor farmers in dryland zones. The weed is extremely difficult to control. After successful germination, a germ tube which protrudes from the seed attaches itself to the root of a host plant. Much of the impairment of host growth and productivity is complete before the weed emerges above ground, some four to six weeks after germination.
Chemical control is partly effective but out of the question for resource-poor farmers.
Breeding for host-plant resistance has met with limited success. Labour intensive and tedious manual weeding is only moderately successful at best, and is ineffective with severe infestations. Fertilizers bring about some improvement, but poverty is an impediment to their use. Farmers are often forced to abandon their fields as infestations become so severe that attempts to grow crops become futile. The best hope for successful control lies in an integrated approach, and recent advances in research on pathogens is one aspect showing promise.