Kenya: Viral Disease Hits Maize in South Rift

[Shiloh]

Source: http://brussels.cta.int/index.php?op...item&Itemid=54

Tuesday, 05 June 2012
Kenya: Strange Disease Hits Maize in South Rift

Researchers and scientists have identified the strange disease which has destroyed thousands of acres of maize crops in South Rift as maize lethal necrotic. Scientists from the Kenya Agriculture Research Institute have said the disease is a viral infection made up of two viruses and is new in the country but has been reported in other parts of the world. Anne Wangai, a researcher with Kar,i said the disease is a combination of maize chlorotic mottle virus and sugarcane mosaic virus. She said tests conducted on affected maize samples collected from the region positively identified the two viruses...

[Shiloh]

Re: Kenya: Viral Disease Hits Maize in South Rift

Source: http://www.coastweek.com/3523_agriculture_01.htm

Poor seeds blamed for deadly
maize diseases in Kenya

some farmers, due to economic reasons, can not
afford certified seeds and therefore turn to
recycled seeds, which are vulnerable to diseases

SPECIAL REPORT BY XINHUA CORRESPONDENT Bedah Mengo

NAIROBI (Xinhua) -- Widespread practice of using recycled or farm-saved maize seeds especially among small-scale farmers in Kenya is one of the causes of deadly virus diseases that are threatening the country?s food production and security.

Kenya?s Ministry of Agriculture noted some farmers, due to economic reasons, can not afford certified seeds and therefore turn to recycled seeds, which are vulnerable to diseases.

Most of them save seeds from their previous harvests, which they then dry and store for planting in the coming season.

The habit, according to the ministry, is responsible for transferring diseases from one planting season to another since the seeds may have been infected before harvest or got infected during storage.

The diseases ravaging maize crops in the east African nation have been identified as Maize Chlorotic Mottle Virus and Sugarcane Mosaic Virus, which further give rise to Maize Lethal Necrosis Disease.

The diseases lead to gradual withering of maize crops, which eventually die. The viral diseases that affect different varieties of maize seeds have destroyed several acres of crops in various parts of the east African nation.

Notable among them are areas in Rift Valley, Western, Central, Eastern and Nyanza, Kenya?s breadbasket zones, where millions of people risk starvation due to the diseases...

[Shiloh]

Re: Kenya: Viral Disease Hits Maize in South Rift

Source: http://www.coastweek.com/3537_agriculture.htm

Maize virus disease in Kenya identified

Kenyan millers have already called on the
government to drop the 50 percent maize
import duty to help stabilize the prices

NAIROBI (Xinhua) -- Kenyan agriculture scientists have now identified the structure of the virus disease affecting maize crop across the country that will reduce the volume of expected harvest in this season.

The disease has been analyzed at laboratories based at the Kenya Agriculture Research Institute (KARI) and laboratories in Britain and United States.

Dr. Ann Wangai, a crop scientist at KARI, said the disease has been discovered to be a lethal virus that has previously devastated maize crop in Argentina, Mexico and Peru.

?The disease is capable of wiping out 100 percent of the maize crop it affects,? said Dr. Wangai. ?When we did the research to find variance of the disease, we found that it is caused by two viruses that combine to form a disease called maize lethal necrosis,? she said.

One of the viruses is known as the sugarcane mosaic virus and the other is maize chlorotic mottle virus.

It is the first time that the disease is occurring in the African continent, according to maize crop scientists meeting in Nairobi on Tuesday to review progress of developing a maize species that requires less water to grow under the project known as Water Efficient Maize for Africa.

The disease has devastated maize crop in the Rift Valley, Kenya?s bread basket. Maize is Kenya?s staple food, often mixed with beans or milled and cooked into pulp. Kenya consumes an estimated 44 million 90-kg bags of maize every year...