Boost to wheat production with two disease-resistant varieties

Kenya hopes to contain the wheat rust, which destroys about a tenth of the wheat crop, through introduction of two disease-resistant varieties next year. The strains — Robin and Eagle 10 — will save farmers the costs incurred in intensive spraying of wheat fields to control the grain disease.

“We have two seed varieties that are disease resistant. The seeds are being multiplied and we expect farmers to have them by April next year,” said Peter Njau, a plant breeder at Kenya Agriculture Research Institute (Kari) in Njoro. The disease has mainly affected small-scale farmers because most of them cannot afford to buy the pesticides, leading to up to 80 per cent of their crop being lost. It is estimated that up to 30,000 tonnes of wheat are lost to the rust annually. READ ON: http://www.businessdailyafrica.com/Corporate+News/Kenya+set+to+boost+wheat+production/-/539550/1247300/-/140uxlc/-/index.html