Modeling the potential ecological niches of noxious kongwa weed in Tanzania for improved land use management
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Date
2021
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Publisher
Sokoine university of agriculture
Abstract
Noxious weeds are problematic in many parts of the world, greatly affecting areas of
agriculture, forests, nature reserves, parks and other open spaces. Astripomoea
hyoscyamoides also known as noxious Kongwa weed is a serious problem in agriculture
sector particularly in Kongwa district. In order to manage the weed, the first step is
identification of the potential habitats. Modelling is one of the best techniques in
identifying weed’s potential habitats because it can map large area with less time, less
labor and less cost than other weed mapping techniques. The need for modelling the
potential ecological niches of this weed has arisen in response to the increasing habitats of
the weed in other places apart from its original locality of Kongwa district. Under present
climate scenarios, model results showed that semi-arid lands of Tanzania are the most
suitable habitats for the weed whereby the highly suitable habitats were found to be in
Dodoma, Singida and Manyara regions. Moderately suitable habitats were found in
Arusha and Lindi regions and some parts of Tanga, Kilimanjaro, Mtwara, Njombe,
Mbeya, Rukwa, Ruvuma and Morogoro regions. Under future climate scenarios, Kongwa
weed is predicted to be heading to the Lake zone part of Tanzania around Lake Victoria.
The new regions which are likely to be invaded by the Kongwa weed in the future were
found to be; Mara, Simiyu, Shinyanga and some parts of Kagera region. In determining
the risk posed by different pathways in spreading the weed. Results showed that livestock
movements and transportation of fodder posed the greatest risk in spreading the weed.
The findings from this study have shown that Kongwa weed can establish itself in many
parts of the country and therefore there is a need for coordinated efforts from both
government, research institutions and the general public to consolidate plans to manage
the weed such as controlled and monitored movement of livestock, transportation of
agricultural produce and inputs.
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Keywords
Ecological niches of noxious, Land use management, Astripomoea hyoscyamoides, Weed mapping techniques, Forests, nature reserves