The witchweeds, in the genus Striga, are a remarkable group of obligate flowering plant parasites, some of which attack and destroy the crops of small-scale farmers in many parts of the semi-arid tropics. Striga hermonthica devastates sorghum and millet crops grown in Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad, Ethiopia, Mali, Niger and Sudan, and the expansion of maize cultivation in West Africa which some see as the real start of Africa's Green Revolution is also threatened.
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