101002ppp332

Purple Witchweed

### Usage

The name seems to have from vampire lore - much like the vampire bat - it is a parasitic plant. This is an illustrative use - "Here's what it looks like guys" that is completely unrelated to content of the paper. The photo was taken or otherwise posted on May 25, 2011 for International Institute of Tropical Agriculture with an Attribution-NonCommercial 2.0 Generic (CC BY-NC 2.0) licence. https://www.flickr.com/photos/iita-media-library/5758197638

## Suicidal germination as a control strategy for *Striga hermonthica*(Benth.) in smallholder farms of sub‐Saharan Africa

* Boubacar A. Kountche
* Muhammad Jamil
* Djibril Yonli
* Minimassom P. Nikiema
* Daniel Blanco‐Ania
* Tadao Asami
* Binne Zwanenburg
* Salim Al‐Babili

First published: 28 March 2019

https://doi.org/10.1002/ppp3.32

## Societal Impact Statement

Infestation by the parasitic plant *Striga hermonthica* is a severe threat to food security in sub‐Saharan Africa, impacting the production of the major staple crops pearl millet and sorghum, equating to 7–10 billion $ losses. Using *Striga* seed dependency on host‐released germination stimulants, we have developed and validated a method for addressing the problem of accumulated parasite seedbanks—the major obstacle in combating *Striga* infestation in African rain‐fed fields. Application of our method promises to alleviate the problem posed by this pernicious weed by increasing crop production for smallholder farmers.

© 2019 The Authors, *Plants, People, Planet* © New Phytologist Trust

This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

**Publication History**

* Issue Online 28 March 2019
* Version of Record online 28 March 2019

**Plants People Planet**

* Volume 1, Issue 2
* April 2019
* Pages 107-118

## Links to read / download

https://nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/ppp3.32

https://nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/toc/25722611/1/2

https://www.natureasia.com/en/nmiddleeast/article/10.1038/nmiddleeast.2019.45

### Citations

Kountche, Boubacar A., Muhammad Jamil, Djibril Yonli, Minimassom P. Nikiema, Daniel Blanco‐Ania, Tadao Asami, Binne Zwanenburg, and Salim Al‐Babili. “Suicidal Germination as a Control Strategy for Striga Hermonthica (Benth.) in Smallholder Farms of Sub‐Saharan Africa.” *Plants, People, Planet* 1, no. 2 (2019): 107-18. doi:10.1002/ppp3.32.

* Chicago:  Kountche, Boubacar A., Muhammad Jamil, Djibril Yonli, Minimassom P. Nikiema, Daniel Blanco‐Ania, Tadao Asami, Binne Zwanenburg, and Salim Al‐Babili. “Suicidal Germination as a Control Strategy for Striga Hermonthica (Benth.) in Smallholder Farms of Sub‐Saharan Africa.” *Plants, People, Planet* 1, no. 2 (2019): 107-18. doi:10.1002/ppp3.32.
* APA:  Kountche, B. A., Jamil, M., Yonli, D., Nikiema, M. P., Blanco‐Ania, D., Asami, T., … Al‐Babili, S. (2019). Suicidal germination as a control strategy for Striga hermonthica (Benth.) in smallholder farms of sub‐Saharan Africa. *Plants, People, Planet,* *1*(2), 107-118. doi:10.1002/ppp3.32
* MLA:  Kountche, Boubacar A., et al. “Suicidal Germination as a Control Strategy for Striga Hermonthica (Benth.) in Smallholder Farms of Sub‐Saharan Africa.” *Plants, People, Planet*, vol. 1, no. 2, 2019, pp. 107–118., doi:10.1002/ppp3.32.