By Agatha NgothoGeoffrey Maina Kamande only wanted to grow some food crop for his family. However, his small farm has now become a demonstration site on the new drought-tolerant maize variety to many farmers at Kivue in Embu county.
Maina says an extension officer gave him seeds to try out in his small plot which is strategically located by the roadside so that others would see and learn from it.
"I was given half a kilogram of seeds to plant in my plot and in the first season, I harvested two bags of maize which is a lot when you consider the size of land I planted," says the father of three, who leases the small plot for Sh400 a month.
Since his plot is by the roadside, people would stop and ask about the maize variety he uses and within the first season, he was able to introduce about 30 farmers to the maize variety.
"I harvested about two and half bags in the next season and even if the rains do not come, you will still harvest. I do not sell my produce but use it to feed my family," Maina says, adding that he uses rabbit urine to prevent diseases from attacking the maize crop.
Water Efficient Maize for Africa (Wema) country co-ordinator Dr Murenga Mwimali says uptake of the conventional Wema products is quite high and exciting, especially the new WE1101 variety, popularly known as Tego.
"The challenge is on seed production, not only with foundation seeds but with certified seeds because the demand is actually outweighing the supply. That is why we have put in place measures to work together with Kephis to support seed companies on the technical backstopping in order to help them produce good quality seeds. There are other products within Wema which were released in 2013 and we are also working on the seed production so that in the long rains of 2015, farmers can have these seeds in the shelves, marketed by private companies that have been licensed by the Wema project management," Murenga said.
Kithimo area chief Samuel Njuki says WE1101 is becoming an alternative to the Duma 43, Makueni and 511 varieties that are commonly used by farmers in the area. He is convinced that the drought Tego is a good variety that can do well having tried it himself.
James Nyaga from Kithimo area has his granary stocked with the drought Tego maize harvest having had a good harvest.
He planted 10kg in one acre piece of land and harvested about 30 bags; previously he used to harvest less than 20 bags.
"I saw a demonstration farm where the variety had been planted and I decided to try. I have not been disappointed with the returns and I plan to plant it again. I will sell 28 bags and use the rest for domestic consumption," says Nyaga, who used to rear 600 layers but stopped the project due to low returns and high cost of feeds.
Currently a bag of maize fetches Sh2,000 and he has now converted the chicken coop to a maize granary.
According to Grace Agili of Wema,16 varieties of maize have been released so far but only one variety, drought Tego, has been commercialised -- this means that seed companies are able to multiple and sell to farmers.
The drought Tego takes four to five months unlike other varieties that take six months to mature. Regina Muthoni, also from the Wema project, says the uptake from farmers is good.
"So far, we have more than 10,000 farmers in Embu, Meru, Murang'a, Nyeri, Kirinyaga and Tharaka Nithi who have adopted the drought Tego. Currently we do not have enough seeds in these regions and demand is high but supply of the seed is low," she adds.
Dr Stephene Mugo from the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Centre Kenya (CIMMYT) said besides the Wema hybrid varieties being developed and on trial by CIMMYT, Karlo and others, they are also testing varieties resistant to the maize lethal necrosis disease in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania.
He, however, advises farmers to try crop management as breeders try to come up with a variety resistant to the disease since it takes a long time.
"We are going to fight this leopard from all angles and breeding of a new variety and crop management will go together," he says.