Kenya Launches Research Maize Screening Site

Summary posted by Meridian on 9/15/2008
Source: Africa Science News Service
Author: George Kebasso

The Kenyan government has commissioned a US$500,000 Maize Stress Screening Site at the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARI) Kiboko Sub centre in Kibwezi, Kenya. "Our goal is to have this Sub centre grow to host a facility that will be used by scientists, locally and internationally. We aim to host students who would like to undertake strategic research towards solving the problems of a farmer," says KARI Director Ephraim Mukisira. Already located at the Kibolko Sub centre is the Drought Tolerant Maize for Africa (DTMA) Project, which receives funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Howard G. Buffet Foundation, both based in the U.S. KARI, the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Centre (CIMMYT), and the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) are collaborating on the DTMA project. The project has a ten-year strategic vision, which includes plans to: 1) generate maize varieties with strongly increased yields under drought-affected conditions; 2) increase average maize productivity under smallholder farmer conditions by 20-30 percent on adopting farms; and 3) reach 30-40 million farmers in sub-Saharan Africa. Conventionally bred open pollinated varieties (OPVs) and hybrid maize varieties are being developed under the project, as are genetically modified (GM) maize plants. "Th[ese] new varieties are high yielding; they are developed specifically to help farmers harvest early to escape a late drought. In fact they [have] 25-40 per cent high[er] yield[s] than what farmers used to grow here," says CIMMYT Regional Maize Breeder Alpha Diallo. The article can be viewed online at the link below.

The original article may still be available at www.agbios.com/main.php?action=ShowNewsItem&id=10005

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Topics: Product development, Scientific research, Smallholder farmers
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