Alarm raised over threat to maize yields

Dr Romano Kiome. Photo/FILE

What you need to know:

  • Food security put in jeopardy as farmers in the nation’s grain basket brace for poor harvests

The Agriculture ministry has sounded the alarm over a maize disease in the South Rift that could threaten food security.

Most farmers in the region, the country’s grain basket, had been affected, permanent secretary Romano Kiome said on Wednesday.

And Rift Valley provincial director of agriculture Philip Ochieng said between 30 per cent and 40 per cent of the planted maize in the South Rift had been lost to the disease.

“Samples of affected plants have been analysed locally and abroad and the results indicate a combination of pathogens, mainly viruses and fungi,” he said.

Dr Kiome said symptoms of the disease were mottling, flecking and streaking.

Moisture stress

Fungal symptoms like chlorosis, necrosis, leaf reddening, discolouration of nodes and brownish-white mould growth on cobs, had also been noted.

The permanent secretary said the situation had been worsened by moisture stress, poor soil fertility and heavy infestation of pests such as thrips, aphids, leaf hoppers and stock borers.

Dr Kiome noted that the region was critical to food security as harvests from the area come into the market in July and August when the national stocks were at their lowest.

He said a team comprising the Kenya Plant Health Inspectorate Service, agro-chemical firms, Egerton University, Kenya Agricultural Research Institute and International Wheat and Maize Improvement Centre had been set up to curb further losses.

Dr Kiome’s announcement was made in a speech read on his behalf by the director of crop management in the ministry, Dr Johnson Irungu, at a field day in Singorwet location of Bomet District.

Assistant minister in the Office of the Vice-President Beatrice Kones, Bomet district commissioner Elijah Kodoh, Bomet County Council chairman John Kalya, Bomet mayor Joyce Korir and senior officials from the ministry and Rift Valley provincial headquarters attended the function.

Dr Kiome said besides the South Rift region, other areas that had been affected by the disease were Nakuru, Naivasha, Kibwezi, Yatta, Embu and Rumuruti.

He said experts who had analysed the disease had recommended short-term measures that the farmers should undertake.

These include timely planting to avoid drought stress which exposes crops to attack, use of certified seed, crop rotation, diversification of farm enterprises and avoiding planting maize in fields that are prone to water logging.

Long-term measures, he said, included research on identifying the causal organism, updating the early warning system and instituting a rapid response mechanism, developing disease-resistant seed and the screening of a wide range of maize germplasm to identify resistance or tolerance to the disease across different agro-ecological zones.