Scientists eye new maize variety to transform dry regions into food suppliers

Corporate News

Kenya Agricultural Research Institute workers planting maize at the Kari site in Ukambani. FILE 

By JOSPHAT NGENO

In Summary

• The new variety is expected to ease the burden of irrigation and insecticides, which pose a challenge to smallholder farmers.
• the variety takes between four and five months to mature unlike the traditional one that takes up to nine months.
• Field trials started in 2010. Once the scientists complete the trails, the maize variety will be released after getting approvals by agencies like the National Bio-safety Authority (NBA) and the Kenya Plant Health Inspectorate Services (Kephis).

Ukambani, Baringo, West Pokot, Turkana and North Eastern regions have been associated with perennial drought, famine and relief food.

 

The harsh weather has led to loss of lives, animals and limited crop farming, linking these regions to poverty, cattle rustling and underdevelopment.

However, with the ongoing development and testing of new maize variety at the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (Kari) at Kiboko Research Centre in Makueni County, these could soon be a thing of the past.

Known as MON 810-event, the new maize variety is not only drought-tolerant but also fast-maturing, high-yielding and pest- and disease-resistant.

Dr Murenga Mwimali, the country co-ordinator at the Water Efficiency for Africa, a public-private partnership-led by the Kenya-based African Agricultural Technology Foundation ( AATF) and funded by Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Howard G. Buffet foundation, said they were at the final stages of testing the species.

“This new variety has proven that it can withstand low rainfall amounts and still do well,” he said during harvesting at trial fields at Kiboko recently.

Two more trials will complete the phase and start planting in open fields, he said, adding that once approved for commercialisation, the variety would transform lives of peasant farmers who have been hit hard for long by perennial drought and the stem-borer attack.

“We expect the variety to change the lives of the smallholder farmers for the better. It will put a smile on farmer’s faces,” he said. “The main challenge for farmers in arid and semi-arid areas is drought and stem-borer disease. We are working round the clock to come up with a variety that will tackle both problems concurrently.”

Dr Mwimali said that the variety will ease the burden of irrigation and insecticides, which pose a challenge to smallholder farmers.

“Less than 0.5 per cent of farmers can afford irrigation in Kenya and chemicals too are expensive,” Dr Mwimali told Business Daily.

The variety is suitable for subsistence and business, the official said.

“The old breed yields less than 10 bags an acre, while the new variety produces between 30 and 50 bags per acre,” Dr Kariuki, the Kari Kiboko research centre director, told the Business Daily.

Dr Kariuki says the variety takes between four and five months to mature unlike the traditional one that takes up to nine months.

Field trials started in 2010. Once the scientists complete the trails, the maize variety will be released after getting approvals by agencies like the National Bio-safety Authority (NBA) and the Kenya Plant Health Inspectorate Services (Kephis).

Kari is due to release a report late this year about the development and testing that will ask the NBA and Kephis to allow unconfined trials before commercialisation. They expect to release the variety in two years time.