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10-Minute Presentation

Plant-Insect Ecosystems

10-min: P-IE, Invasive Species

Can ecological intensification withstand pest invasion? Long-term evidence from push-pull systems in Kenya

Sunday, November 9, 2025
2:18 PM - 2:30 PM Pacific
Location: Oregon Convention Center, E141-142, OCC
Oral Presentation

    Presenting Author(s)

  • LE

    Lilly V. Elliott-Vidaurri

    PhD Candidate
    Cornell University
    Ithaca, New York

    • Co-Author(s)

  • ZK

    Zeyaur R. Khan

    International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology (ICIPE)
    Nairobi, Nairobi Area, Kenya

  • FC

    Frank Chidawanyika

    ICIPE and the University of Witwatersrand South Africa
    Mbita, Rift Valley, Kenya

  • CM

    Charles Midega

    International Centre of Insect Physiology & Ecology (ICIPE)
    Mbita, Nyanza, Kenya

  • DN

    Dickens Nyagol

    International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology (ICIPE)
    Nairobi, Nairobi Area, Kenya

  • BM

    Bester Mudereri

    Consultative Group for International Agricultural Research (CGIAR)
    Kigali, Kigali, Rwanda

  • KP

    Katja Poveda

    Cornell University
    Ithaca, New York

With global environmental changes on the rise, assessing whether a productive food system can withstand shifts in weather patterns and invasive pests—while maintaining productivity—is crucial for subsistence farmers. Ecologically intensified systems have been proposed to offer greater resilience than their conventional counterparts; however, tests of their resilience against invasive herbivores are rare. For over 25 years in eastern Africa, the push-pull system has been a well-established technology that consistently increased yields for subsistence farmers while decreasing weed and insect pest pressures. Since 2017, the fall armyworm (Spodoptera frugiperda Smith), an invasive maize pest, has posed a significant threat to the livelihoods of these farmers. This presents a rare opportunity to test how resilient an ecologically intensified system, like the push-pull system, is to disruption by an invasive pest. We tested how the push-pull system performed in the face of the fall armyworm invasion, changes in weather patterns and changes in landscape composition compared to a non-push-pull control using data collected from a cumulative 2,022 Kenyan farms between 2017 and 2023. Our results show that even after the fall armyworm invasion, push-pull plots continued to produce more than double the yields of control plots while halving the damage caused by Striga weeds, stemborers, and fall armyworm. We will further present data on the resilience and stability of push-pull systems in response to changes in climate, and landscape composition.