Rice producers in Kenya will soon be able to plant Nerica, New Rice for Africa, a high yielding and pest-resistant variety that helped push Africa's rice paddy yields to historic highs this year.
Nerica has been tested in a series of adaptability trials in the country since 2004 at 11 sites and is expected to be legalised in September. Researchers working in conjunction with the National Irrigation Board (NIB), which manages the country's four main irrigation schemes, are finally preparing to hand growers the Nerica variety.
Dr. Raphael Wanjogu, head of research at NIB's Mwea Irrigation Agricultural Development Centre, said performance trials are currently in progress. The Kenya Plant Health Inspection Services and other institutions are involved in the trials that aim to establish best practices for using the variety in Kenyan agriculture.
"It is planned that release will be done after one season of trials and DUS (distinctiveness, uniformity and stability)," Wanjogu said. "This will be done in September 2007 to allow the farmers legally grow Nerica commercially in Kenya. "To ensure high productivity there is need to produce a set of recommendations for use by small holder farmers under rain-fed rice systems."
Nerica rice is a cross between African and Asian rice varieties that was produced by the Africa Rice Centre (Warda), that is considered to be suitable for the unique growing environment in sub-Saharan Africa. The novel variety has earned accolades, including a Time magazine mention of Sierra Leonian scientist Dr. Monty Jones, who worked on Nerica's development, as one of the most influential people in the world.
D. Papa Abdoulaye Seck, the director general at Warda, said it was widescale adoption of Nerica that sent African production to an all time high last year, capping six years of growth for the crop. The continent harvested 21.6 million tonnes of rice in 2006, six per cent more than in 2005.
New reports from the Food and Agricultural Organisation show that backed by favourable weather and the new rice variety, nations such as Burkina Faso, Gambia, Guinea, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal and Togo witnessed significant growth in output over last year.
"We do not think that it is just a coincidence that Burkina Faso and Mali have had these spectacular successes. They were the first countries to evaluate and release the lowland Nerica varieties developed recently by the Africa Rice Centre in close association with national programmes," said Seck in a news release.
Now Kenya, spurred by the variety's impressive run in other African countries, is pushing to introduce it for commercial production and cut down on its annual imports of rice. NIB shows that during financial year 2006/07, Kenya produced 39,457 metric tonnes of rice, from its four main production schemes in Mwea, Ahero, Bunyala and West Kano. The Kenyan rice is generally Basmati or Sindano varieties that are relatively lower yielding and more prone to pests than Nerica.
This production volume remains less than annual consumer demand for 120,000 tonnes, resulting in imports from abroad, mainly Pakistan.
Njogu said field demonstrations on Nerica showed that farmers would attain yields of about 6.5 tonnes per hectare. Four sub-varieties of the rice had shown themselves to be most promising in Kenya: Nerica-1, Nerica-4, Nerica-10 and Nerica-11. The trial for the cultivars were carried in Kisumu, Maseno, Alupe, Busia, Bungoma and Marakwet as well as Mweea, Juja, Meru, Matuga and Kilifi.
Business Daily
To ease your site search, article categories are at bottom of page.
