Alarm raised as disease wipes out maize crop

A viral disease has destroyed hundreds of acres of maize in Kerio Valley, worsening a food crisis in the region.

The disease has been identified by agricultural experts as maize lethal necrosis. It turns the crop’s leaves yellowish and then dries the plant just before it matures.

Cobs also shrink and fail to develop any grain while the stem and nodes turn brown.

At least 1,500 acres of maize in Kapkamak-Arror location under irrigation by the African Development Bank have been affected.

Another 100 acres in the neighbouring Kocholwo division in Soy South location, Elgeyo Marakwet County, have been infected.

County agriculture executive Stella Rono, visited the farms on Wednesday, and called on farmers to uproot and burn or bury all the crops to curb the spread of the disease.

“It started in the South Rift region. Having seen its symptoms, there is no doubt that it is the maize lethal necrosis disease,” said Dr Rono.
She warned that the disease could spread unless the crop is destroyed.

“This is a viral disease transmitted by insects and the only way to contain it is by ensuring that people practise what they have been taught,” she said. “We shall go around to educate farmers. We hope they will listen to us.”

SWEET POTATOES
Dr Rono asked the farmers to suspend maize growing for the next six months. She said they could grow alternative crops such as cassava, green gram, sorghum, millet and sweet potatoes throughout the next season until the fields were free of any pathogens that transmit the disease.

County assembly members Christopher Chemosong (Arror ward) and Gilbert Kaptugen (Soy South) have raised the alarm, saying hunger in the area could worsen. They called on the national government to provide food aid.

The region received inadequate rainfall during the planting season.