Philanthropist Bill Gates. FILE PHOTO | NMG
Kenyan researchers have welcomed a Sh30 billion grant from the
Bill and Melinda Gates for development of high yielding maize varieties
for the African and Asian continents.
Water Efficient
Maize in Africa (Wema) Coordinator Murenga Mwimali said the three-year
grant would enable State and private agencies develop region-specific
maize varieties.
“We in Kenya, and more so in the Kenya
Agricultural and Livestock Research Organization (Kalro) welcome this
continued support that shall contribute immensely towards provision of
high-yielding disease-resistant maize varieties, higher food production
and nutritional security for improved livelihoods,” said Dr Mwimali.
The
Wema coordinator said modern biotechnology tools among smallholder
farmers will ease food shortages blamed on recurrent drought, maize
lethal necrosis, fall armyworm, heat stress and climate changes.
Africa
Union’s Gates Foundation director Haddis Tadesse said more needs to be
done to ensure African farmers feed their families as well as produce
enough for the market.
During the just ended the One
Planet Summit in France, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation pledged
Sh30 billion starting next year to support agricultural research geared
towards helping smallholder farmers access high yielding, drought and
disease resistant maize varieties.
The Foundation is targeting about 800 million people who solely rely on agriculture.
This
will help peasant farmers sustain production amid increasingly
challenging conditions brought about by climate change, including rising
temperatures, extreme weather patterns (droughts and floods), diseases,
poor soil fertility and attacks from crop pests.
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