East African Business Week

NJORO, KENYA: Many small-scale farmers in Eastern Africa have given up growing wheat because of pressure from Ug99, a new strain of stem rust that turns fields of wheat into black stubble, with empty spikes that hold little or no grain.
Kenyans confronted this hunger challenge head-on on September 30 when Mr Gideon Ndambuki, the assistant minister of agriculture, flipped the switch for a new irrigation project in Njoro that will provide water for field trials of hundreds of new varieties of high yielding, yellow and stem rust-resistant wheat.
"This field day celebrates Kenya's opportunity to improve agricultural productivity, profitability and farmers' livelihoods," said Ndambuki. "The adoption of new technologies will positively impact productivity."
More than 200 farmers, scientists, industry partners, government officials and schoolchildren attended the field day at the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARI) in Njoro.
Participants saw new KARI releases of sweet potato, canola, linseed, cassava, maize and sunflower, witnessed irrigation improvements, including a 1000 cubic meter water tank and sprinkler system, and toured the 12 hectares of land set aside for screening international wheat germplasm for stem rust resistance. Much of the wheat was heavily infected with stem and yellow rust.
KARI wheat breeders were particularly excited to showcase fields of two new high-yielding wheat varieties that are now available to Kenyan farmers-Eagle 10 and Robin. Both varieties are resistant to yellow rust and Ug99, and show no signs of infection.
During the field day, Dr. Ephraim A. Mukisira, the director of KARI, confirmed that KARI was embracing advanced science and technology in more than 500 agricultural projects.
"Technologies that are on the shelf at KARI need to move out to farmers," he said. He said all Kenyans would benefit from public and private extension efforts, and bankers and government policy makers who enable progressive agronomic and market infrastructures. "Global development partners who work and serve farmers will lead to a new Kenya and a new Africa, one that embraces science and technology," said Dr. Mukisira.
"The importance of wheat cannot be underscored. This field day has exposed us to the achievements of collaborative partnerships.
You have ignited a process that will impact the lives of the rural poor and the entire population of the global community. I am sure that because of this work, next year bread prices will be half the price of today."