Researchers develop pest-resistant maize variety

Kenyan scientists have developed a new variety of pest-resistant maize raising the prospect of the country increasing its output and boosting its food security. Researchers said the variety could withstand the grain borer, one of the most common consumer of stored grain.

The new variety is the result of a partnership between the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (Kari) and the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Centre (CIMMYT) and is resistant to the beetle that is native to Central America. The beetle can destroy more than a third of stored produce within six months of harvesting. It is believed to have arrived in East Africa through food aid shipments in the 1970s and early 1980s. First identified in Tanzania, the beetle destroys 30 per cent of Kenya’s total annual maize output.

Agriculture officials said the new maize variety will undergo performance trials to be conducted by the Kenya Plant Health Inspectorate Services (Kephis) in the next 12 months. The testing phase is expected to take 1-3 years before the new maize hybrids and open pollinated varieties become available to seed companies for production and sale to farmers. The variety will also be distributed to other countries for evaluation through the CIMMYT maize testing programme.

“This variety is critical to the improvement of food security in Kenya and 20 other African countries,” said CIMMYT’s Stephen Mugo, who led the research project.

The research team discovered that the stock borer needs a solid platform, such as that provided by maize kernels on the maize cob to attack the kernel. Losses can be reduced by shelling the maize and storing the kernels off the cob. The common practice by African farmers to store maize with the cob therefore increase the potential for attack.

Latin America has in the past tried to control the pest through introduction of natural predators that feed on the beetle, but with only limited success. This is what makes the development of new varieties, where the resistance lies in the seed, exciting.

“Having the solution in the seed itself makes adoption much easier for farmers,” said Marianne Banziger, the director of CIMMYT’s global maize programme. “There is no added workload or expense to the farmer, no long-standing practices or habits to change.”

Using conventional plant breeding techniques, the scientists crossed this variety with varieties that were already adapted to weather conditions in Eastern Africa, such as heavy rain, to produce the new pest-resistant maize.

CIMMYT researchers found resistance to the borer in the centre’s germplasm bank, in maize seed originally from the Caribbean. The bank holds 25,000 unique collections of native maize races.

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