Abstract:
Termites are social insects found mainly over two-thirds of the landmass involving some 100
countries. The present study is aimed to assess farmers’ indigenous knowledge in termites’ effect
of termite infestation on vegetation, crops, construction and control Methodism Dale Wabera
district. Data were collected through open ended questionnaire surveys, group discussion and
interview for people particularly in the damaged area and analyzed using descriptive statistical
methods and the result was displayed in the form of table, pie chart and figure. In the study, data
was collected from one hundreds twelve (112) respondents from the total populations of the
study area. Among these informants, thirty two (32, 29%) of them were taken as key informants
by using purposive sampling technique and eighty (80, 71%)of them were taken by using simple
random sampling technique as the general respondents. About 65.63% of the millet and sorghum
were types of crops that were highly cultivated crops as responded by the respondents. During
this study, there were different factors that cause termite infestation like deforestation,
overgrazing, inadequate food and soil erosion were some of the causes of termite infestation.
Strategies of rehabilitation of bare land and protecting an area from overgrazing by live stocks
should be advised. Mechanisms of termite control should be programmed by concerned bodies
in order to tackle termite infestation and methods of maintaining the damaged land should be
implemented in order to overcome the problems. As well as scaling up of sustainable land
management best practices and encouraging farmers to cultivate vegetables and tubers that are
resistant to termites.
